UN frustrated over Syria truce

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council has expressed frustration over the failure to implement a resolution calling for a cease-fire throughout Syria.

On Saturday, the council had adopted Resolution 2401, calling for a cease-fire “without delay” for at least 30 days throughout Syria to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

“We are here again today because the brief respite you unanimously demanded only days ago in Resolution 2401 has not materialized,” Jeffrey Feltman, UN undersecretarygeneral for political affairs, told the council.

“There are no words to

Briefly

express our frustration over the collective failure of the international community to end this war,” Feltman said.

Airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have continued in Syria with reports of yet another chlorine gas attack, Feltman said, adding: “What we need is implementation of 2401, and that is not happening.”

UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs Mark Lowcock said more than 580 people have reportedly been killed and over 1,000 others wounded due to air and ground-based strikes in Eastern Ghouta since Feb 18, when government troops intensified efforts to retake the rebel stronghold.

Lowcock said UN convoys are ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations. They include a 45-truck convoy with aid for 90,000 people in Eastern Ghouta. But UN humanitarian workers have not been given permission to access those locations since the adoption of Resolution 2401.

A Pakistani couple became the first civilians evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

They were evacuated by the Syrian Red Crescent to the Pakistani embassy in Damascus on Wednesday, half an hour after the daily five-hour-long humanitarian pause ended.