UN delays vote on 30-day ceasefire in Syria

Negotiations will continue on how to define timeline for halt, humanitarian aid

The UN Security Council delayed a vote on a resolution demanding a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire across Syria until Saturday in hopes of closing a gap over the timing for a halt to fighting.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has called an immediate ceasefire unrealistic.

After six hours of negotiations, Kuwait’s UN Ambassador Mansour al-Otaiba, the current council president, told reporters Friday evening that members “are so close” to agree- ment, and negotiations are continuing.

He said the council will meet at noon EST on Saturday and there will be a vote.

The resolution sponsored by Kuwait and Sweden calls for a ceasefire to take effect 72 hours after its adoption, followed immediately by access for humanitarian convoys and medical teams to evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

It states that 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities are in “acute need,” including 2.9 million in hardto-reach and besieged locations.

A Russian-proposed amendment, which the sponsors rejected, would have ruled out an immediate ceasefire. Instead, it would have demanded that all parties “stop hostilities as soon as possible” and work for a “humanitarian pause” for at least 30 days. Sweden’s UN Ambassador Olof Skoog echoed al-Otaiba, telling reporters that council members have been “very, very close” to agreement —“but we have not been able to close the gap completely.”

“We all agree there needs to be a ceasefire and it has to be urgent, immediately,” he said. “There are still some discussions on exactly how to define that. So that’s what we’re working on.”

Skoog said he was “extremely frustrated” that the council was unable to adopt the resolution on Thursday or Friday because the situation on the ground is dire and demands immediate council action.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who did not participate in Friday’s negotiations, tweeted: “Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria. How many more people will die before the Security Council agrees to take up this vote?”

Sweden and Kuwait, and their council supporters, have been pressing for immediate action as deaths mount in a Syrian bombing campaign in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta.

“It is about saving lives,” Sweden’s Skoog said earlier. “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.”

The draft resolution would authorize one exemption from the ceasefire. It would allow attacks directed at extremists from Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and all Al Qaeda affiliates, including the Nusra Front, to continue. The Syrian government and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamic extremists they call “terrorists” — and U.S.backed forces are also going after Daesh and Al Qaeda militants.

The latest draft resolution does include several other Russian proposals.

Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate suspension of “all war activities” in eastern Ghouta, where he said 400,000 people are living “in hell on earth.”