ReliefWeb

Syria

Jessy Chahine, for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), recalled that on 10 September in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and United States Secretary of State John Kerry had announced a plan to reinstate the cessation of hostilities in Syria. This included provisions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and clear rules in place for the management of the cessation of hostilities. The United Nations and its Special Envoy for Syria had clearly welcomed the agreement announced by the US and Russia as co-chairs of the ISSG, with a view to reinstating the cessation of hostilities in Syria. She said that the UN would do whatever it could to support an early restoration of the cessation of hostilities. The most critical test of the plan would be its ability to make a real difference in the lives of Syrians on the ground. The first order of business for the sponsors of the plan, other countries on the ISSG and all stakeholders on the ground should be to act immediately in support of a restoration of humanitarian access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas. The UN also welcomed the fact that the US and Russia were prepared to work together to defeat Daesh and the Al-Nusra front.

All parties to the conflict, other than groups designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council, should now ensure its effective implementation in order to restore the cessation of hostilities, enable the lifting of all sieges, and allow sustained, unimpeded and unconditional access to those in need. The UN considered that the agreement opened an important window of opportunity which needed to be used in order to end the five-year war which had killed more than 250,000 people and had seen millions flee to neighbouring countries. The UN hoped that parties would consider that they were able to return to the talks with humanitarian access delivered.

In response to a question, Ms. Chahine said that the resumption of fighting since the initial cessation of hostilities agreement in February 2016 had demonstrated once again that there could be no military solution to the conflict, and that the elimination of ISIL and other UN-listed terrorist entities in Syria also required a political solution. The UN would continue working hard towards preparing a proposal for a political transition, based on the Geneva communiqué, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and inputs given by the Syrian parties. That proposal would serve as the starting point for the resumption of negotiations among Syrian parties as soon as possible. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura would be proceeding to New York in the coming days to consult with the Secretary-General, ahead of the ministerial meeting of the Security Council on 21 September, with a view to advancing this objective and discussing a date for the resumption of negotiations on transition among parties.

Mr. de Mistura and his office were monitoring the cessation of hostilities very carefully since its start on 12 September. They would keep monitoring it before making any hurried comments. Mr. de Mistura had been made aware of the US-Russian plan, which could only be made publicly available by those two parties.

In response to more questions, Ms. Chahine said that the UN had been monitoring the cessation of hostilities since the first deal had been made in February, and would continue to do so this time. The monitoring could even be reinforced. She also underlined that the UN had a strong humanitarian and political role to play, and was playing it on the ground. As a mediator, Mr. de Mistura was working to try and reconcile the points of view of different parties concerned by the conflict. Mr. de Mistura, the Secretary-General, and the whole UN political team were working intensely with all the parties to the conflict to try to find a political solution. With the good news of the agreement, the UN was hoping to relaunch the Intra-Syrian talks process as soon as possible.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the UN stood ready to provide assistance following the agreement reached by the US and Russia reinstating the cessation of hostilities. However, all parties to the conflict and members with influence over them should ensure that the cessation hostilities was respected, to enable unimpeded, unconditional and sustained access without delay. The UN remained prepared to deliver, also to the besieged and hard-to-reach areas, including East Aleppo, where between 250,000 and 275,000 people had not been reached by the UN since early July. The first planned deliveries would provide food assistance to East Aleppo, delivered cross-border from Turkey. Also operations inside Syria were ready to deliver to other besieged and hard-to-reach locations across the country, as soon as access would be possible. Those deliveries would be prioritized in accordance with the September delivery plan, which included areas covered under the Four Towns Agreement, Kefraya, Fouah, Madaya and Zabadani, as well as East Aleppo and Moadamiyet al-Sham. The four towns had not been reached since April 2016.

In its September plan, the UN had asked originally to reach an estimated 1.2 million people through inter-agency land convoys to besieged, hard-to-reach and other priority cross-line locations. On 6 September, full or partial approvals had been received to reach a total of about 980,000 people. However, up till now, no convoys had proceeded yet in September. The hope was that the reinstated cessation of hostilities would enable the UN to access those areas and to reach everybody in need.

In response to a question, Mr. Laerke said that it was necessary to see in the coming hours and days whether the cessation of hostilities actually provided real, genuine, usable, operational access to those in need. Based on those developments, the UN would use any and all modalities available to reach those people. In response to another question, Mr. Laerke clarified that the UN was waiting for the reinstated cessation of hostilities to deliver the assurances and peace needed before trucks could start moving in from Turkey. As of now that had not yet been the case. He underlined that the UN was the first to understand the urgency of the situation, but aid needed to be delivered in a safe and secure way, for those delivering and for those receiving aid. He restated that it was necessary to enter an environment where humanitarian organizations’ workers delivering aid were not in mortal danger. In response to more questions, Mr. Laerke said that a lot of frantic activity and mobilization had happened since the agreement had been struck in order to rush in aid as soon as it was safe to do so. For quite some time, the UN had been mobilizing, stockpiling, readying itself to seize this great opportunity to deliver urgent aid. However, no convoys had gone out yet. He also said that no additional approval from the Government was needed at the moment, and that the obstacle was the war on the ground. The UN had done everything that it could possibly have to make sure that, when the necessary logistical and security conditions were aligned, it could move forward with the shortest possible delay both cross-border and from within the country. Mr. Laerke also stated that over the past five years in Syria, the UN as well as its humanitarian partners had shown that they were willing to stay and deliver to places where few others would voluntarily go, in order to reach as many as possible in Syria.

In response to a question about the financing of the humanitarian operation in Syria, Mr. Laerke confirmed that the humanitarian response plan for Syria for 2016 had asked for USD 3.2 billion, and was financed at the level of 33.8 per cent so far.