Deliberate interference, most notably by the Syrian government, continues to hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid to the more than half million people trapped in besieged areas by the country's nearly four-year-old civil war, a top United Nations Official said Friday, May 27, according to the Associated Press.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council, via video-link from Geneva, that 592,700 people are currently living under siege in Syria with the vast majority of them, some 452,700, besieged by government forces.
O'Brien said that even when humanitarian aid deliveries had been approved, the Syrian government "has severely curtailed the UN's ability to reach those in need."
He said that the UN submitted plans to reach 1.1 million people in 34 besieged, hard-to-reach and other priority locations during the month of May and the Syrian government granted full approval to only 14 locations, with conditional approval for another eight, "effectively leaving more than 40 percent of the planned target population — including Aleppo, Al Wa'er and Talbiseh — without access to basic necessities and food."
In one case, O'Brien said, a convoy headed to Darayya, where 4,000 civilians have been besieged for years, had to be aborted due to "unconscionable last-minute restrictions," AFP says.
"At the last check-point, government forces removed all basic supplies, including nutritional items for infants. No other conclusion can be drawn other than that this was simply a way to further punish civilians — at this time infants," O'Brien said.
Bashar Jaafari, Syria's UN Ambassador, disputed O'Brien's claims and accused Turkey of using the humanitarian convoys to deliver weapons to the government's enemies.
He said that Syria allows for the delivery of aid, "except for things that be handed to terrorists" and said that out of 19 government-approved aid convoys the UN only sent three.
"Cooperation is not a one-way street, the UN also has to cooperate with the Syrian government," Jaafari said.
