A convoy of food aid reached the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya today, following UN negotiation with both rebel and government forces about letting aid into sieged areas. The World Food Programme (WFP) expressed hope this would lead to more deliveries to more areas around Syria that need them.
The WFP statements were almost immediately dismissed, however, and replaced with claims of bombings against Daraya that began a few hours after the delivery, fueling a new round of condemnation from the rebels and their allies against the Syrian government.
Local factions claimed that the WFP deliveries never even took place in Daraya, despite the WFP clearly saying they did, and the rebels claiming the bombings started well after that time, with claims of 28 “barrel bombs” dropped on the town.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault didn’t waste any time checking facts, and immediately launched into a diatribe about Syria’s “extraordinary duplicity” in preventing the aid deliveries, even though virtually all indications are that the deliveries had indeed happened.