No answers from Russia on Aleppo
EARLIER this month, I led a cross-party delegation of MPs to the Russian Embassy to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo.
In the last four years, the world has witnessed this ancient city reduced to dust.
Thousands have died and even more have been injured; aid convoys have been attacked and children’s lives have been permanently damaged.
The delegation aimed to secure answers from the Russians: we wanted to know whether they would support independent humanitarian monitors to help the safe passage of those who were still trapped in Aleppo.
The Russian Ambassador argued that Aleppo is being treated as a ‘tragedy’, rather than a ‘liberation’.
He stated that there were no hospitals in Aleppo. They were, in his words, ‘Jihadi headquarters’.
I asked the Ambassador whether he could confirm whether Russian and Syrian forces would allow safe passage for aircraft to drop humanitarian aid into Aleppo. He did not answer me.
The Ambassador also complained that the UK was not doing enough to combat terrorism in the Middle East.
However, when we pointed out that it was Russia who vetoed the UN Resolution on that very issue, he did not reply!
All of us who see the continuing suffering of people, especially the children, in Aleppo and Syria, can but hope that peace and safety can be part of their lives in 2017.