{"id":219402,"date":"2019-06-18T22:20:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T02:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=219402"},"modified":"2019-06-18T22:20:51","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T02:20:51","slug":"un-aid-chief-says-humanitarian-disaster-unfolding-in-idlib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/18\/un-aid-chief-says-humanitarian-disaster-unfolding-in-idlib\/","title":{"rendered":"UN aid chief says ‘humanitarian disaster’ unfolding in Idlib"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: The Russia\/regime ceasefire breach sees the continuation of their attacks on civilians. 4 civilians were killed yesterday. 3 in #Hass City in #Idlib and another person in an IDP camp in #TalHadya south of #Aleppo. The high number of injured is still being counted. (Photo<\/a>: Syria Civil Defence – The White Helmets\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.N. humanitarian chief declared Tuesday that \u201ca humanitarian disaster\u201d is unfolding in Syria’s last rebel-held territory where Bashar Assad’s forces have launched an offensive, ending a cease-fire negotiated by Turkey and Russia in September.<\/p>\n

Mark Lowcock told the Security Council that since Syrian troops began pushing into Idlib on April 30 an estimated 330,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and more than 230 civilians have died.<\/p>\n

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Russia and Turkey to stabilize the situation in Idlib, home to over three million people, \u201cwithout delay.\u201d He called the situation \u201cespecially dangerous given the involvement of an increased number of actors,\u201d and said civilians are again \u201cpaying a horrific price.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told that council that for Syria’s close ally Russia, the presence in Idlib of radicals from the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, \u201cis not tolerable\u201d and \u201cfor Turkey, time is required to effectively isolate and address HTS’ most hardline fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the September memorandum with Turkey \u201cis being fully implemented,\u201d telling council members it \u201cdoesn’t ban but rather encourages the fight against terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that all military activities are in response \u201cto provocations from terrorists,\u201d saying HTS controls 99 per cent of the Idlib de-escalation zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that the issue is not that it’s a humanitarian catastrophe,\u201d Nebenzia said. \u201cIt’s clear that the issue is the desire to keep the territories that are not under Damascus’ control for as long as possible regardless of who prevails in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nebenzia said Idlib should ultimately return to Syrian government control \u201cand the terrorists there … will have to be liquidated.\u201d And he added that fighting the spread of terrorists \u201cis much more important than artificial stoking of tensions in the region, in the Persian Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany, Belgium and Kuwait asked for the humanitarian briefing on Idlib by Lowcock, and the United States asked for DiCarlo’s political briefing.<\/p>\n

Lowcock said the World Health Organization has confirmed that 26 health care facilities in northwestern Syria have been attacked since late April and stressed that attacking civilians and civilian installations like hospitals and schools is a violation of international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of partners now feel that supplying geographical co-ordinates to be given to the warring parties effectively paints a target on their backs,\u201d he said. \u201cSome have drawn the conclusion that hospital bombings are a deliberate tactic aimed to terrorize.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S., Britain and many Western ambassadors echoed his concern.<\/p>\n

Turkey’s U.N. Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu told the council that the \u201cfight against terrorism can in no way justify these indiscriminate attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia’s Nebenzia said \u201cwe decisively reject any accusation of indiscriminate strikes\u201d and told the council \u201cwe’re not carrying out attacks against civilians.\u201d He added that terrorist fighters are using civilian infrastructure and civilians as human shielings.<\/p>\n

On the political front, DiCarlo said political efforts \u201ccannot move forward in an environment of open conflict\u201d and U.N. efforts \u201cwill stall if Russia and Turkey cannot uphold the cease-fire agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkey’s Sinirlioglu said the HTS problem needs to be addressed \u201cwith a more sophisticated and comprehensive long-term strategy, targeting its ideology and structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProgress in the political process will be one of the key elements to this end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For over a year, the U.N. has been trying to form a committee to draft a new constitution for Syria, and Sinirlioglu said finalizing an agreement is at a \u201ccritical stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Convening the committee \u201cwill be the first essential step of the international community’s efforts towards a democratic Syria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Sinirlioglu said the Syrian regime’s attacks in Idlib are clearly aimed \u201cat the collapse of the political process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Idlib de-escalation area cannot hold,\u201d he warned, \u201cprospects for a viable political solution will diminish considerably.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.N. humanitarian chief declared Tuesday that \u201ca humanitarian disaster\u201d is unfolding in Syria’s last rebel-held territory where Bashar Assad’s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":219404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219405,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219402\/revisions\/219405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}