UN Retreats on Aid Airdrops, Will Proceed Only With Assad’s Consent

MESOP : UNITED NATIONS – STOP SMOKING IN WAR TORN SYRIA – BUT DON’T STOP ASSAD !

The UN has retreated on a pledge to airdrop aid to Syria’s besieged areas. Having passed a June 1 deadline to begin assistance, the organization said on Monday that the Assad regime has until June 10 to respond to a request for access by land.Even more significantly, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that, if there is no reply, the UN will ask for airdrops — but will not proceed if the regime refuses: “The UN will request approval for access by air wherever this is feasible to reach people in need, as a measure of last resort.”

In mid-May, with the Assad regime tightening blockades on opposition-held areas, the International Syria Support Group — 17 countries such as the US and Russia, the UN, the European Union, and the Arab League — mandated the World Food Program to begin airdrops by June 1, whether or not Damascus agreed.However, last week UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said that the regime’s consent was necessary. UN officials cited reasons of logistics, security, and expense. The head of UN humanitarian operations, Stephen O’Brien, told the Security Council that a formal request for Syrian permission to begin airdrops and air bridges would be delivered on Sunday. However, the approach was never made — instead a letter asked for permission to ground convoys to deliver food and medicine to 34 areas, including 17 besieged towns.

The regime briefly opened access to some areas after a now-collapsed February 27 “cessation of hostilities”, but renewed the restrictions in April and May, with the UN able to reach only 5% of hard-to-reach civilians. Both O’Brien and Jan Egeland, the UN’s head of Syrian operations, warned of an imminent crisis including the starvation of children.

The UN says at least 592,000 Syrians live under siege conditions. Activists say the number is far higher, with the international medical organization Medecins Sans Frontieres saying it could be close to two million. www.mesop.de