THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL WAS ‘ALMOST THERE’ IN A DEAL WITH RUSSIA ON A CEASEFIRE TO END STRIKES ON SYRIA’S EASTERN GHOUTA, BUT THE VOTE WAS DELAYED AND SOME HAVE ACCUSED RUSSIA OF DRAGGING ITS FEET.
Hundreds killed in Syrian region since Sunday
AMMAN, JORDAN • The UN Security Council was “almost there” in a deal with Russia on a 30-day ceasefire to end the bombardment of Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, the council president said Friday night.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said Friday that his country was “ready to give our agreement to a text,” signalling that the council was on the verge of making headway after repeated failures to pass resolutions.
However, the vote was delayed as some accused Russia of dragging its feet by insisting on changing the wording of the draft resolution. The resolution would allow attacks directed at extremists from ISIL and all al-Qaida affiliates including the Nusra Front to continue. The Syrian government and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamist extremists they call “terrorists” — and U.S.-backed forces are also going after ISIL and al-Qaida militants.
More than 462 people have been killed since the assault on the rebel-held Damascus suburb began last Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 32 were killed Friday.
“This is about saving lives,” said Olof Skoog, Sweden’s UN Ambassador. “UN convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go. It’s time for the council to come together and shoulder its responsibility to urgently avert a situation that is beyond words in its desperation.”
Russia is one of five permanent members of the Security Council that can veto a draft resolution. It has done so repeatedly throughout Syria’s civil war, torpedoing numerous efforts to stem the bloodshed even as its air force carries out bombing runs on behalf of Bashar Assad, Syria’s president.
Russia had described civilian testimonies from the embattled area as “mass psychosis” earlier in the week, and blocked a Security Council vote.
Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, wrote a joint letter to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, calling for an immediate truce in Eastern Ghouta.
“France and Germany condemn in the strongest possible terms the deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations, including very large numbers of children, and against civil and medical infrastructure in clear violation of the most fundamental international humanitarian law,” it read.
The letter included a condemnation of the attacks on Damascus by opposition fighters inside Eastern Ghouta, but ended with a call for Russia to “assume its full responsibilities”.