Syria approves aid to 11 besieged areas amid calls for air drops

This comes as the UN Security Council discusses plans for aid to be air-dropped to areas under siege, following calls by the US, UK and France.

Syria’s government has been largely obstructing United Nations attempts to reach civilian populations in other besieged zones – rejecting requests, blocking convoys at the last moment or issuing only conditional approvals.

“The last time, people were filling the streets waiting for the aid to come in”, activist Shadi Matar told AFP from inside Daraya.

Syrian girls sit holding placards in the town of Daraya, southwest of central Damascus.

The convoy is believed to be carrying medicine but not food.

Meanwhile, the Security Council announced it will formally ask Damascus to allow air drops to besieged areas.

U.S. Department of State spokesman John Kirby said hundreds of thousands of Syrians need “sustained and regular” access to aid, urging the Syrian government to allow the possibility.

On Thursday a senior United Nations official confirmed drops were not “imminent”, after Middle East Eye reported on Wednesday that is was unclear whether the Syrian governemnt would give its approval for air drops.

In February, the WFP carried out a 21-pallet air drop of aid to a government-held area of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria. Of the 21 pallets, 10 were unaccounted for, seven landed in no-man’s land and four were damaged.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described the limited access for aid allowed on the day of the deadline agreed by the International Syria Support group ISSG as “cynical”.

Airdrops are far more complicated and costly than land-deliveries, and far less efficient.

“We’ve just entered the city”, the tweet said.

Syrian operator negotiator, Basma Kodmari, said the aid to Darayya and nearby Moua damiya, another besieged zone, was just the first step as a result of extreme global pressure on the Syrian government, and significant action was still needed.

O’Brien said last week the United Nations had asked to send aid convoys to 35 besieged and hard-to-reach areas in May but the Syrian government only granted full access to 14 and partial access to another eight.

The aid to Daraya contained medical supplies, vaccines, baby milk and nutrition items, but no food.

Ramzy said that Russian Federation took tremendous efforts to make sure a convoy carrying humanitarian aid reached the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya on Wednesday (June 1), reported Sputnik. Darayya residents have lived under a punishing government blockade for more than three years.

That request included all 19 locations officially designated as besieged areas except Yarmouk, which is covered by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, and Deir el-Zour, which is under siege by Islamic State extremists and is already receiving air drops, Ms Pitt said. But access by road has been repeatedly rejected by the Assad government and its forces manning checkpoints.

U.N. aid chief Stephen O’Brien is to brief the U.N. Security Council on Friday on the situation.

It’s the first delivery of its kind to the town since 2012.

An estimated 8,000 people live in Daraya, one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in anti-government demonstrations in 2012 and one of the first under a strict regime siege the same year.