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West urges Syria to allow aid drops to besieged towns
UN reluctant to start aid airdrops in Syria without Russian backing
(about 4 hours later)
The US, Britain and France have attempted to put pressure on the Syrian government by demanding that it allow airdrops of aid into besieged towns.
The UN has infuriated the Syrian opposition by saying that a previous commitment to push for airdrops to deliver food aid to besieged towns cannot go ahead without the permission of the Russian government.
The international community had set a deadline of 1 June to turn to air drops if the government failed to adhere to an agreement to allow large-scale aid to reach the towns.
The UN and the World Food Programme were under instruction from the international community to deliver food aid by air if Syrian government had not given permission for widespread access to rebel-held towns surrounded by government troops by 1 June. The instruction was delivered by the 17-nation International Syria Support Group in Vienna co-chaired by the US and Russia.
The United Nations security council is due to discuss the issue on Friday, following a request from the UK, but there is every sign that Russia will reject the call.
But at a press conference in Geneva, UN officials made clear they were still drawing up plans and showed reluctance to press ahead with food drops by air, saying such missions were expensive, dangerous and liable not to succeed.
According to the UN, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria, the majority because of regime forces, and another 4 million live in hard-to-reach areas.
The UN deputy special envoy to Syria, Ramzy Ramzy, said: “As the World Food Programme has not yet finalised its plan, I don’t think there is something imminent. I think that the process that will lead to airdrops has already started, so we just have to wait and see when it will be put into effect at the earliest possible date.”
The Red Cross reported that aid entered the Damascus suburbs of Darayya and Moadamiyeh on Wednesday after the government agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire.
Related: ‘It's like trying to hit a football field from the top of Everest' – why aid airdrops just don’t work
Related: ‘It's like trying to hit a football field from the top of Everest' – why aid airdrops just don’t work
It was the first time since 2012 that aid had reached Darayya, which has been subject to a crippling government blockade since residents expelled security forces in the early stages of the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad.
According to the UN, 592,000 people live under siege in Syria and another 4 million live in hard-to-reach areas.
The aid did not contain food and instead was largely made up of items such as mosquito nets and shampoo.
On Wednesday, an aid convoy entered the Damascus suburb of Darayya for the first time since 2012, after the government agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire. The aid did not contain food and instead was largely made up of mosquito nets and shampoo.
On Thursday Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, acknowledged that airdrops were costly and fraught with difficulties, but said the International Syria Support Group co-chaired by Russia had pledged to try aid drops by the 1 June deadline at a meeting in April and now needed to act to retain its credibility. He said the easing of blocks on convoys by the Syrian government on Wednesday was too little too late.
Jan Egeland, a UN special adviser, said it had always been intended that Wednesday’s delivery would consist largely of medicines and that food would be despatched in a second delivery.
France, the current chair of the UN security council, will table the issue for discussion on Friday but the Russians claimed aid was starting to get through and more time should be given for the Syrian government to allow land convoys into the towns.
Food convoys cannot reach towns if either the Syrian government or, in a smaller number of cases, Syrian rebels refuse to allow them to pass, and Egeland said the planned delivery of foodhad been delayed until the weekend
The dilemma for the west is that if the Syrian government refuses to allow airdrops, attacks on UN-backed aid planes become a possibility. Any such threat would probably lead the UN to abandon the plan.
Syrian activists suspect that the UN does not want to antagonise the Russians who it regards as the only party able to persuade the Syrians to allow humanitarian access. Russia has been calling for the Syrian government to be given more time to allow through aid and will resist any air activity in Syria that is not permitted by the Syrian government.
Hammond said: “While airdrops are complex, costly and risky, they are now the last resort to relieve human suffering across many besieged areas. Countries with influence over the Assad regime such as Russia and Iran must now ensure that these air operations can proceed in a safe and secure manner.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has recognised the severe practical issues around airdrops but believes the already tarnished credibility of the international community will be further damaged if the 1 June deadline is simply ignored.
“The Assad regime has cynically allowed limited amounts of aid into Darayya and Moadamiyeh but it has failed to deliver the widespread humanitarian access called for by the international community.”
Egeland said most of the places requiring food were dense urban areas where airdrops would have to be made by helicopter and the World Food Programme would need clearance from the government.
The British diplomatic side acknowledge that any widespread use of airdrops would require an international discussion about assurances that the Assad regime would not attack any UN planes carrying aid.
Bassma Kodmani, the leader of the the umbrella body for the Syrian opposition, welcomed the delivery of medical supplies to Darayya: “This is clearly a first move that came as a result of extreme pressure and the real threat of airdrops. Pressure and ultimatums are the only way to get the Syrian regime to hear anything. We will obviously not be content with very limited and short-lived access,” she said.
A US State Department spokesman, John Kirkby, was unclear about the conditions under which the US would back aid drops. He said: “What we have said all along is we want them [the Syrian regime] to support sustained, complete, comprehensive, unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance.”
“The international community must now intensify pressure on the Syrian regime, including by delivering airdrops to all areas in need, to ensure that access is comprehensive, intensive and continuous.”
France’s ambassador to the UN, François Delattre, who holds the security council presidency this month, said access to the towns and villages under siege remained blocked, and he blamed the Syrian regime.
She said the airdrops should be extended to all areas in need and called for them to be attempted regardless of the consent of the Syrian government.
“France is asking the United Nations and in particular the WFP to begin humanitarian airdrops for all the areas in need, beginning with Darayya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya, where the civilian population including children risks dying of hunger,” Delattre told a press conference.
Syria Solidarity UK welcomed cross-party support in UK for airdrops and accused the UN, the World Food Programme and the International Red Cross of allowing themselves to be used by Bashar al-Assad’s regime throughout the crisis.
The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and Stephen O’Brien, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, will brief council members on Friday. De Mistura has sounded sceptical about the practicality of airdrops.
“If the World Food Programme is unwilling to carry out humanitarian airdrops, then the UK should call on the expertise and resources of the RAF,” it said.
Last month the International Syria Support Group called on the UN to “immediately carry out a programme for air bridges and airdrops for all areas in need” starting on 1 June if it was denied access to designated areas.
Separately, the UN has claimed that in Iraq more than 656,000 people have returned home to areas liberated from Islamic State after coalition countries provided more than $120m (£83m) to make areas safe.
Privately, British sources acknowledge that airdrops are only the “least worst option”, and experience with previous drops into Syria showed food failed to meet targets or was picked up by Syrian forces. Dropping food by parachute from height under cloud and into a wind requires huge skill and luck. There is also a danger that the food packages are destroyed on impact with earth.
In February the World Food Programme carried out a 21-pallet airdrop of aid to a government-held area of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria. As many as 10 pallets were unaccounted for, seven landed in no-man’s land and four were damaged.
Meanwhile a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a mosque in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on Thursday, killing and wounding several people, a monitoring group and state media reported.
The explosion took place near the city centre as people were leaving prayers, state TV reported, describing it as a terrorist attack.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground, confirmed the blast took place in a northern area of Latakia.
The Obseratory said the blast killed at least three people. State media reported at least one dead and several wounded.
