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| Syria crisis: Government approves aid deliveries, says UN | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Syrian government has approved humanitarian access to seven besieged areas, the UN has said. | |
| Convoys were being prepared to depart "as soon as possible", said spokesman Farhan Haq. | |
| Among the areas due to receive aid is Madaya, where people have been dying of starvation. | |
| World powers last week agreed to seek a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" and to accelerate and expand aid deliveries. | |
| After talks in Damascus on Tuesday, the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the Syrian government had a duty to allow access to whoever needed it. | |
| This obligation, he said, would be put to the test on Wednesday. | |
| Mr Haq named the seven areas as Deir el-Zour in the east, Foah and Kefraya, in Idlib province, and Madaya, Zabadani, Kafr Batna and Muadhamiya in rural Damascus. | |
| Earlier Russia said it "categorically rejects" accusations of war crimes over the bombing of hospitals in Syria. | |
| Turkey has blamed Russia for a series of rocket attacks on several hospitals and schools that killed up to 50 people. | |
| But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC that the only proof Russia would accept from the ground "comes from the Syrian authorities". |