A convoy carrying food and medicine entered a besieged rebel-held town near Damascus Wednesday in what the United Nations described as a test for the country's warring sides ahead of a hoped-for cease-fire. The Red Crescent said trucks laden with supplies entered Moadimayet al-Sham, the first delivery of aid since world powers agreed on an ambitious plan to cease hostilities by Friday and dramatically ramp up humanitarian access.
Prospects for the cease-fire - announced by top diplomats in Munich last week - have been fading as violence continues to shake Syria, including strikes on hospitals on Monday and repeated Turkish shelling of Kurdish militia. The Red Crescent's Muhannad al-Asadi told AFP that a convoy entered Moadimayet al-Sham on Wednesday. "There are 35 trucks carrying 8,800 sacks of flour, 4,400 food parcels, high energy foods and medical equipment," he said.
The UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Syria, Yacoub El Hillo, added that supplies were also dispatched to four other besieged towns. "Today, aid for 30,000 people will enter Moadimayet al-Sham. Other aid will be enough for one month for 42,000 in Madaya, and close to 1,000 in Zabadani," he said. Madaya and Zabadani, in Damascus province, are both besieged by Syrian regime forces. Hillo said supplies for 20,000 people were to be delivered to the Shia towns of Fuaa and Kafraya, in northwestern Idlib province, which are surrounded by rebels. Almost half a million people in Syria are in areas under siege, according to the UN.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said aid deliveries would provide a "test" for Syria's warring sides ahead of Friday's planned truce. "It is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person wherever they are and allow the UN to bring humanitarian aid," he said in Damascus on Tuesday. His comments led a senior aide to President Bashar al-Assad to accuse the envoy of deviating from his mediation role. "His mission now is to establish a list of terrorist groups, and a list of opposition groups who should dialogue with the Syrian government," Buthaina Shaaban told AFP.
"Instead of that he was working on humanitarian aid, which is not really his mission because he is a facilitator. He should take care of what he is apt to do." A UN source said De Mistura was set to stay in the capital overnight Wednesday to monitor the deliveries. Diplomats have been pressing the cease-fire deal as a step forward in efforts to end the nearly five-year conflict that has left more than 260,000 dead, devastated the country and forced millions from their homes.
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