Lavrov says Syrian rebels blocking aid
No civilians exit rebel-held area in eastern Ghouta on day 2 of pause
GENEVA — Russia said on Wednesday that militants in Syria’s besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta were blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave, despite Moscow’s announcement of a humanitarian corridor.
Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would continue to support the Syrian army in totally defeating the “terrorist threat”.
“Russia together with the Syrian government has already announced the estab- lishment of humanitarian corridors in eastern Ghouta,” Lavrov told the Geneva forum.
“Now it is the turn to act for militants entrenched there, who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave, as well as for their sponsors.”
Hundreds of people have been killed in 11 days of battle in eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel bastion near the capital. The campaign, in a swathe of rural territory and towns where 400,000 people are under siege, is one of the fiercest of a war now entering its eighth year.
The UN Security Council, including veto-wielding member Russia, passed a resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day cease-fire across all Syria, but it excludes militant groups on the UN terrorism blacklist, which Moscow and Damascus say are the targets of their “anti-terrorism campaign”.
Instead, Russia has proposed five-hour daily truces in eastern Ghouta, to allow resi- dents to leave and aid to enter the enclave through what it describes as a humanitarian corridor.
The first such truce, on Tuesday, failed when bombing and shelling resumed after a brief lull. Moscow and Damascus blamed the rebels for attacking the corridor, which the rebels deny.
Syrian state news agency SANA said a former al-Qaida affiliate present in the enclave was blocking civilians “to use them as human shields”.
Still, no civilians have used the exit corridor manned by Syrian and Russian forces to leave while ground battles were reported.
Some residents left the basements they had been cowering in for days to check on their property and buy food, AFP reported.
Lavrov’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Russia was doing its part to establish the cease-fire, but other countries needed to act as well.
Russia was “still assisting with the counterterrorist operation”, since the cease-fire plan backed by the Security Council excluded terrorists, she said.
Asked about the deaths of children in the bombing, she said children from families supporting the Syrian government had also been killed, and Russia had entered the war in 2015 to protect them and to stop the violence spreading to Russia.
“How about seven years ago when the West supported this Arabic Spring thing and everybody was so enthusiastic about that, did you at that time think about children? No, nobody.
“Everybody was thinking about democracy. And now you are thinking about the children. Don’t you think it’s too late for the West to start thinking about the children?”