Syria envoy: Back off, Russia
UN official says passage plan for trapped groups, civilians in opposition areas ‘our job’
GENEVA— The UN special envoy for Syria on Friday urged Russia to leave the creation of humanitarian corridors around Aleppo to the United Nations and its partners, issuing a gentle snub to Moscow, which had made the proposal a day earlier as pro-government troops tightened their encirclement of rebel-held parts of the northern Syrian city.
Rights groups and civilians trapped in opposition-held neighbourhoods in eastern Aleppo reacted critically to Russia’s plan, saying it does not guarantee safe passage or give residents a choice of where they flee to. Some residents fear the proposed corridors are intended to restore government control over parts of the city that have been in rebel hands since 2012.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said he was not consulted on the proposal, which was first announced Thursday by the Russian defence ministry.
“That’s our job,” de Mistura said of the corridors plan at a press conference in Geneva.
He expressed support “in principle” for humanitarian corridors, but said it must be “under the right circumstances.”
“How do you expect people to walk through a corridor — thousands of them — while there is shelling, bombing, fighting?” de Mistura said.
He said he is awaiting clarification from Russian authorities about the plan, noting the urgent situation in the city, wracked by devastating violence in recent months.
“The clock is ticking for the Aleppo population,” he said. The UN says Aleppo is now possibly the largest besieged area in Syria, with an estimated 300,000 residents trapped inside.
Robert Mardini, Middle East director for the International Committee for the Red Cross, said those who choose to stay in Aleppo must be protected and that all parties must allow humanitarian agencies to reach them.
“Humanitarian corridors need to be well and carefully planned, and have to be implemented with the consent of parties on all sides,” Mardini said. He said he had no indication that all involved groups had agreed to the plan.
With airstrikes on Aleppo continuing, the Russian proposal seems more like an effort to “depopulate Aleppo City in preparation for concerted pro-regime ground operations to force the surrender of opposition groups within the city,” the Institute for the Study of War said in a brief.
Late night airstrikes in the city killed at least six people, the activist-run Aleppo Media Center said Friday.
Osama Abo Elezz, a general surgeon from Aleppo who was stranded in Turkey because of the siege, said the idea of allowing people to evacuate the city “offers a service to the regime and the Russians, and forces people to go to areas they don’t want to go to.”