The besieged Syrian town of Daraya, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus where President Bashar al-Assad has refused to allow aid to starving Syrians, got its first UN aid convoy since 2012 on Wednesday. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had co-ordinated a 48-hour local cease-fire, a "regime of calm", with the Syrian authorities and with the United States "to secure delivery of humanitarian aid to the population".
Syrian opposition negotiator Basra Kodmani said the aid to Daraya and nearby Mouadamiya, another besieged zone, was only a first step that had come about as a result of extreme international pressure on the Syrian government, and substantial change was still needed. "The first lesson is that pressure and ultimatums are the only way we get the regime to hear anything," she said. "We will obviously not be content with one convoy as happened today."
The trucks got through on the day when the Syrian government faced a deadline to admit aid by road or risk having air drops imposed by the countries of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), which includes Syria's ally Russia. "If we don't see substantial change, then we definitely are waiting for those air drops to happen as a sign of the seriousness and the commitment of the international community," Kodmani said. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Syria's government had "cynically allowed limited amounts of aid" into the two besieged areas but failed to deliver the widespread humanitarian access called for by the international community.
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