United Nations has ‘problem’ getting aid to Syria: lack of government OK

But on Friday, a correspondent for the AFP news agency said there was no sign of movement on the road and that Russian and Syrian government flags were visible in the distance.

The government-held side of the contested city of Aleppo is home to a large Christian minority.

The regime reportedly dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas of Aleppo just minutes after the ceasefire began.

SANA says there were 23 violations of the truce deal in Aleppo on Thursday alone.

It made the comments after being asked about Syrian rebel assertions that the Syrian army had not withdrawn from positions around the Castello Road, which leads into Aleppo, meaning that aid deliveries to the city were unable to start.

The clashes were some of the most serious since a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire went into effect this week.

Once that framework is established – it’s called the Joint Implementation Center, or JIC – the Syrian government will be barred from conducting air operations in areas where the JIC is active.

The UN has called on the Syrian government to “immediately” allow life-saving aid into eastern Aleppo, where about 300,000 people are living under siege.

Aside from the reducing the bloodshed, the “second dividend” of the US-Russia deal is humanitarian access.

With the arrival of U.S. forces, the focus would turn to the town of Dabiq, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) northeast of Aleppo and 10 kilometers south of Syria’s border with Turkey. The UN has said it can not cross front lines or checkpoints without Syrian permission.

The United States has not been eager to wade into this quagmire.

But Turkey views them as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is viewed as a terrorist group by Turkey and the U.S.

He said it was too early to talk about a resumption of peace talks that were abandoned in April. Konashenkov said more video monitoring posts will be added later.

Russian Federation on Thursday said government forces had begun to pull out from the area and accused rebel fighters of failing to withdraw as agreed. He says that Moscow hopes that “our American counterparts will do the same”.

Control of the Castello Road is divided between the government and rebels who have been battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad for more than five years.

Peskov says Russian Federation believes that “progress is happening although with certain hiccups”.

The United States and Russian Federation will brief United Nations Security Council members behind closed doors on Friday, diplomats said, on the deal the pair agreed to try and put Syria’s peace process back on track. “Can well-fed, grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic and procedural roadblocks in the way of fearless humanitarian workers who are willing and able to go to serve women, children and wounded civilians in besieged and cross-fire areas?” Laerke said the trucks are in a “special customs zone” on the Turkish border.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and special adviser to the United Nations envoy, decried the ineffectiveness of all parties to take advantage of the truce, saying that aid could reach Aleppo by Friday.

The Kremlin claimed Syrian opposition groups controlled by America have intensified shelling of civilian areas.

According to Syrian state media, militants shelled government-held areas in Qaboun, northeast of the city centre, injuring three people.

Staffan de Mistura said a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire deal agreed on last week has largely reduced the violence since it came into effect on Monday, but the humanitarian aid flow that was expected to follow has not materialized. He also restated Moscow’s demand that the USA use its influence with opposition forces it supports to distance themselves from al-Qaida-linked fighters.

The U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the United States and Russian Federation were expected to manage the disengagement of forces from the road, but also criticised Damascus for failing to provide permits needed to make aid deliveries to other areas.

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it recorded no civilian deaths during the first 15 hours of the cease-fire. A number of shells were also fired by insurgents into besieged al-Foua and Kefraya.

And an activist who is based in Aleppo, Bahaa al-Halaby, denied that government troops had been replaced. The Pentagon said it had no indication of a withdrawal.