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| Al-Nusra Front & allies sabotage humanitarian aid delivery efforts to east Aleppo - Lavrov | Al-Nusra Front & allies sabotage humanitarian aid delivery efforts to east Aleppo - Lavrov |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Militants from Al-Nusra Front (now Jabhat Fateh al-Sham) and Ahrar ash-Sham terrorist groups are sabotaging UN efforts, supported by Damascus and Moscow, to deliver humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. | |
| “Both Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham, along other organizations cooperating with them, are ultimately sabotaging UN efforts to restore the delivery of humanitarian assistance to eastern Aleppo, [carried out] with [Russia's] support and the support of the Syrian government,” Lavrov told the press on Friday. “[They] explicitly shell those routes through which such humanitarian aid can be delivered.” | |
| Lavrov said that according to Russian intelligence, all the groups which have been operating in Aleppo are “one way or another under the command” of Al-Nusra Front, “which controls eastern Aleppo.” | |
| READ MORE: Al-Nusra 'not priority', State Department says as terror group shells civilians in Syria | |
| He also noted that those terrorists have been preventing the exit of civilians from eastern Aleppo, as well as blocking the exit of militants who had expressed readiness to respond to the call by the United Nations to leave the area. | |
| The UN humanitarian agency on Friday said it is currently unable to conduct medical evacuations from Aleppo due to lack of security. The agency said it plans to use Days 3 and 4 of the four-day pause in fighting in the Syrian city for medical evacuations and aid delivery, but it is still awaiting security guarantees, AP reported. | |
| Addressing the press, the minister also expressed concern that Al-Nusra Front militants have been unwilling to leave Aleppo, despite being given the chance. | |
| “We are very much concerned that, despite the goodwill gestures that Moscow and Damascus have undertaken, we see Al-Nusra Front fighters refusing to leave the city,” Lavrov said, noting that the same applies to Ahrar al-Sham, which has been expressing solidarity with Al-Nusra Front, although the West considers it ‘moderate’. |