The United Nations remains unable to transport humanitarian aid into Syria despite an ongoing ceasefire due to the Bashar al Assad regime’s failure to authorize the deliveries, the U.N.’s special envoy for the war-torn country said Thursday.
Staffan de Mistura said the U.N. is prepared to move 40 aid trucks that would deliver assistance primarily to the besieged northern Syrian city of Aleppo, but the Assad regime has yet to provide the needed "facilitation letters" that would allow the convoys entry, the Associated Press reported.
Russian officials told Reuters on Wednesday they were preparing for Syrian government forces and armed rebels to withdraw from a road needed for aid delivery to Aleppo, but both forces have yet to stand down.
The Syrian government agreed last week to allow humanitarian aid into five areas before the ceasefire deal was signed, according to de Mistura. He said Tuesday evening that the truckloads of aid would remain in Turkey until the U.N. is able to negotiate their safe passage.
The truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia began at sundown Monday. While residents and activists have reported a significant reduction in violence, de Mistura said the deal has yet to fulfill its "second dividend" ensuring humanitarian access.
"This is what makes a difference for people, apart from seeing no more bombs or mortar shelling taking place," he told reporters in Geneva.
"On that one, we have a problem," he added. "It is particularly regrettable ... These are days which we should have used for convoys to move with the permits to go because there is no fighting."
De Mistura said Assad’s lack of authorization has even disappointed Russia, the Assad regime’s ally in the civil war.
"Our appeal is the following—it’s a simple one," Jan Egeland, the top humanitarian aid official in de Mistura’s office, told the AP. "Can well-fed, grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic, and procedural roadblocks for brave humanitarian workers who are willing and able to go to serve women, children, wounded civilians in besieged and crossfire areas."
"If they do that, we’re willing and able to go to all these places in the next few days," he said.
Some 300,000 civilians trapped in rebel-held areas of Aleppo are running out of food, medical supplies, and other necessities due to sporadic government sieges blocking aid from entering opposition-controlled regions. The U.N. has described the situation as "dire."
The ceasefire truce aims to ultimately spur negotiations between regime officials and opposition forces to strike a political solution to the civil war, which is now in its sixth year.