UNITED NATIONS - With Russia’s backing, the UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously demanded a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
The resolution demanding the ceasefire “without delay” was adopted as Syrian government forces pounded the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, where hundreds have died during a week-long assault.
“We are late to respond to this crisis, very late,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council after the vote, accusing Russia of stalling the vote.
More than 500 people, including more than 120 children, have been killed in seven days of relentless airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as “hell on earth.”
The resolution demands a cessation of hostilities “without delay” throughout Syria to allow the “safe, unimpeded and sustained” deliveries of aid and evacuations of the sick and wounded. To win Russia’s approval, language specifying that the ceasefire would start 72 hours after the adoption of the draft was scrapped, replaced by “without delay,” and the term “immediate” was also dropped in reference to the aid deliveries and evacuations.
Diplomats said they were confident that this would not open the door to postponing the ceasefire, as council members had made clear in negotiations that the truce must quickly come into force. Guterres is to report to the council in 15 days on the ceasefire, diplomats said.
In another concession to Russia, the resolution said the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with “individuals, groups, undertakings and entities” associated with the terror groups.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia’s recent actions in Syria were a “disgrace”.
The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote on Friday on a resolution calling for a month-long ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians. On Saturday, the meeting failed to start as scheduled at 1700 GMT as negotiations continued in an effort to avert a Russian veto, diplomats in New York said. “Today we are going to see if Russia has a conscience,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters as she went into the council chamber.
Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present, and Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the militants or their allies.
Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.
But all three rebel groups have refused.
World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called “hell on earth”, but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed. The enclave is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.
In one of the many unfolding dramas at a Douma field hospital, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings. “She doesn’t know yet that her own daughter has been killed,” a nurse said.
Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets. “I haven’t eaten since the day before yesterday,” said a mother in a shelter with her two children in Douma, Eastern Ghouta’s main town. “They haven’t stopped crying for three days.”
The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded on Saturday, state media said. Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since Sunday, according to state media, and many residents have sought temporary accommodation elsewhere for fear of a further intensification of the fighting. At the United Nations, US ambassador Haley expressed dismay as negotiations dragged on to secure Russian approval for a ceasefire resolution. “Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria,” she posted on Twitter.
Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to ask him to back the ceasefire.
Negotiations have stumbled over a key provision of the draft resolution that specifies when the ceasefire will begin.
Following hours of tough negotiations, an amended draft was circulated that demands a 30-day ceasefire “without delay,” while stopping short of specifying the timing.
A previous draft had said the ceasefire would go into force 72 hours after the adoption, but that was dropped from the text in a bid to reach compromise with Russia.
In another concession to Russia, the draft also specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with “individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated” with the blacklisted terror groups.
The text would demand the immediate lifting of all sieges in Syria, including that on Eastern Ghouta, and order all sides to “cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival”.