Despite truce, aid not getting to Syrians

The Washington Post

ISTANBUL — Efforts to bring aid to Syrians amid a nationwide cease-fire stalled for a second day Wednesday, the United Nations and activists said, challenging a key part of a deal brokered by the United States and Russia to curb the violence and ease civilian suffering.

The cease-fire agreement took effect Monday amid calls for full humanitarian access to besieged populations. The truce has largely held, but lifesaving aid remained stuck on the Turkish-Syrian border, U.N. officials said.

Syria’s government has not authorized a U.N. convoy carrying emergency food, the agency said Wednesday. U.N. officials are worried about attacks by rebels who have rejected the deal.

The U.N. said Wednesday that reaching residents in east Aleppo, a city divided and devastated by the war, is the agency’s priority. At least 275,000 people in the rebel-held east have been “almost entirely cut off from vital supplies, including food, water, medicine, electricity,” it said.

By evening Wednesday, there were no reports of major violations of the agreement — although Russian Lt. Gen. Victor Poznikhir said rebels had violated the truce 60 times since it came into force — which calls on all parties to hold their fire, allowing only for airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group and alQaida’s affiliate in Syria, known as Jabhat Fatah alSham.

Russian warplanes Tuesday killed about 250 IS militants on the outskirts of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, Gen. Poznikhir told a news conference.