UN officials say that trucks are “ready to move” into both government and rebel-held districts in the north Syrian city of Aleppo, as Russia endorsed their calls for a 48-hour weekly ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aid into the city at regular intervals, along with facilitating medical evacuations.
Russia has previously announced a 3-hour daily ceasefire, but this does not appear to be sufficient for the UN to make real moves of aid into the area, particularly since it hasn’t been reciprocated by the Nusra Front-dominated rebels. The UN is hoping more time will make the truce more practical.
Russia’s agreement is of limited utility at this point, as the Nusra rebels have turned the tables on the government over the past two weeks, and are attempting to surround the government-held western districts, which would effectively block all aid traffic into that half of the city. The government’s siege on the east has likewise been broken.
Western diplomats expressed doubt about the plan, saying they don’t trust Russia to respect the pause. This, again, may ultimately be irrelevant, as Nusra has made no comments at all on the proposal and has largely ignored previous truces.
Of course any truce or a negotiated diplomatic settlement that avoids war, carnage, killing and chaos will not be acceptable to The US, NATO (of which Turkey should pull out), Saudi Arabia, Israel, The UAE and all the usual suspects.
See how this works? That’s why all the WarPigs are aligning themselves with HRC. They can see which way the gravy train is going.
The entire point of the Syrian adventure is not about who will control it when its over because when its over there won’t be anything left to control. Just as was done in Iraq and Afghanistan, the point is to completely destroy any semblance of civilization and functioning society – a security buffer to the north of that pestilence on the east Med. Jordan and Lebanon should seriously take a hard look to their future.