The UN Security Council has set an emergency meeting for Friday to discuss the growing problem of military sieges in Syria against towns full of civilians, and the difficulties of getting humanitarian aid past the blockades and to civilians.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement today calling on all sides to stop sieges of populated areas ahead of the scheduled Geneva peace talks as a “confidence-building measure,” saying the situation is “unconscionable.”
This time last year, Ban says about 5% of sieged populations had access to food aid, and this year that number is down to only about 1%, as both government and rebels have clamped down increasingly to try to force surrenders in surrounded towns and cities.
Recent deals have seen different sides trading temporary humanitarian access with one another, as with a situation earlier this week that saw the government allowing aid into the town of Madaya in return for rebels allowing aid into a pair of Shi’ite villages in the norther.
The Security Council is becoming an increasingly bigger joke with each passing day. How does the military handle a situation where armed antagonists have taken control of a city? The US way is to bomb everyone to kingdom come (the Falluja doctrine). The humane way is to seal off the City and force a “peaceful resolution”. Civilians must be given safe passage. Arrangements must be made for safe surrender or protected departure of the assailants. In this way civilians are spared. The UN should be demanding an end to the pummelling cities (filled with civilians) and insist that sealing off cities be the way forward. To complain about the “seige” of cities shows that this is a politically orchestrated move, not for the interest of the civilians, but to demonise the SAA which has been on a successful offensive since the Russian assistance began.
All sides? What is meant is that Assad is expected to allow the relief of rebel cities. For the rebels and ISIS answer to no one and no one expects them to share their US -supplied MREs with ‘the enemy’. .