First big aid shipment delivered in Syria

“It is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person and allow the United Nations to bring humanitarian aid”, he said.

The United States (US) is seeing aid deliveries besieged Syrian towns as a “step forward” ahead of a meeting with Russian Federation in Geneva on how to implement a Syria truce.

Worldwide aid agencies had loaded 115 trucks with food and medical supplies for 100,000 people in the western towns of Madaya and Zabadani, the northwestern towns of Fouaa and Kfarya, and the Damascus suburb of Moadhamiyeh.

“Tomorrow we test this”, he said after meeting with Syria’s foreign minister.

The Syrian Red Crescent said Wednesday that a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid had arrived in the militant-held town of Muadamiyat al-Sham on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.

The UN official also stressed “Humanitarian delivery is not only important it is essential” noting that “there are now more than 400000 people living in areas besieged by the Government by the opposition and by Daesh”.

Russian cargo planes reportedly delivered humanitarian aid to regime-held neighbourhoods in Deir Ezzor last week.

A no-fly zone would potentially create a safe haven for tens of thousands of displaced Syrians. Damascus will test the level of trust to UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, a Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday. “Maybe it’s even wishful thinking, because if you look into the technical details of a no-fly zone like we’ve seen in Libya, it’s quite complicated”. Al-Najem confirmed to SANA that a convoy of humanitarian aid including 18 trucks containing various food aid and 8,000 flour bags in addition to a medical team headed there.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is renewing her proposal for a no-fly zone in Syria, saying that it could be done by agreement between President Bashar Assad, his backers and the coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

Further complicating peace efforts, Turkey has been shelling a Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria, which it says is allied with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged an insurgency on its soil for decades.

Merkel had said in an interview published on February 15 that it would be “helpful” if there were areas where no side would carry out aerial bombardments – “a kind of no-fly zone”. Syrian government troops who have besieged dozens of rebel-held communities over the past three years are moving toward their biggest target yet–opposition-controlled neighborhoods of the city of Aleppo, where some 300,000 civilians risk being trapped.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his military would continue to strike at the YPG in Aleppo province, where the Kurds have taken advantage of the Russian air campaign to advance against rebel forces.

Syria has pledged full cooperation with the United Nations and the Red Cross to deliver humanitarian aid to all civilians “without any discrimination”, including those in hard-to-reach areas.