UN blamed for failure of Aleppo evacuation

Doctors say the plan to move sick or injured Syrians to safety failed because there was no guarantee for their security

BEIRUT // Syrian doctors in the besieged eastern half of Aleppo yesterday said that a plan to move the sick and wounded to safety failed because the United Nations was unable to guarantee the patients’ security. The UN and key medical groups held days of talks aimed at securing safe passage for the critically injured or ill during a three-day Aleppo ceasefire announced by Russia, but to no avail. The UN on Monday said the plan was terminated for several reasons “including delays in receiving the necessary approvals from local authorities in eastern Aleppo”.

But doctors in the war- ravaged city said the UN was also at fault.

“Of course we blame the United Nations for not providing a clear plan,” said Dr Hamza Al Khateeb, spokesman for nine doctors in eastern Aleppo. “We need guarantees that there will be no arrests or attacks on the sick, wounded, and their companions.

“There was no clarity on the meeting points, on which cars would transport them, or on whether they would be searched.” The uncertainty meant the doctors did not provide the UN with the names of candidates to be moved out.

The UN’s humanitarian coordination agency in Geneva had no comment, but on Monday UN humanitarian aid coordinator Stephen O’Brien accused both the Assad regime and the rebels of holding up the evacuations.

He said rebels imposed conditions to guarantee the safety of the evacuations while the Syrian government refused to allow medical and aid supplies into the rebel-held east.

One of east Aleppo’s last paediatricians, Dr Hatem, said he and his fellow medics had demanded guarantees of safe- ty for the evacuees. They also sought an end to bombardment, aid deliveries, and reinforcements for Aleppo’s exhausted medical staff. “The UN contacted me as a paediatrician to ask me for children’s names. I told them there’s no problem as long as you give us the conditions we asked for,” he said. “To each of these conditions, they told us, ‘we’ll see in the future’.”

Russia’s three-day truce was meant to encourage civilians and rebels to leave the east, but only a handful did so. The powerful Nureddin Al- Zinki faction said it had sought “written guarantees from the United Nations that the wounded and their companions would not be detained, arrested, killed or insulted”.

It added: “Until this moment, we have not received any responses, either positive or negative, on the previous points – only verbal promises to study the points and respond.”

Moscow yesterday said Russian and Syrian planes had carried out no air strikes on Aleppo for the past seven days. That was despite the end of the three-day truce at the weekend, and six humanitarian corridors out of eastern Aleppo continued to function “around the clock”. Russian foreign minister Sergey Larov likened Russia’s operations in Syria to those of the United States in Iraq. “They are preparing an operation to liberate Mosul from terrorists, and in Aleppo, the city needs to be freed from terrorists,” he said. “With the exact same plea as we made in Aleppo, the American coalition is appealing to residents in Mosul, calling on them to leave. Just like in Aleppo, humanitarian corridors have been set up.”

But Britain and France are pressing the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Syrian regime forces after an international inquiry blamed them for three gas attacks. The council is due to discuss the inquiry report tomorrow.

Fresh from his visit to Iraq to review progress on the battle to capture Mosul from ISIL, US defence secretary Ashton Carter yesterday said the US-led coalition was preparing an operation on Raqqa, ISIL’s stronghold in Syria.

“We have already begun laying the groundwork for our partners to commence the isolation of Raqqa,” Mr Carter said after meeting coalition defence ministers in Paris to discuss the aftermath of the Mosul offensive.

“Today we resolved to follow through with that same sense of urgency and focus on enveloping and collapsing ISIL’s control of Raqqa.”

‘ Of course we blame the United Nations for not providing a clear plan Dr Hamza Al Khateeb Spokesman for nine doctors in eastern Aleppo