Assad regime blocks Aleppo aid trucks

A spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revealed that the regime of Bashar Al-Assad has blocked the passage of 40 aid trucks heading for the besieged city of Aleppo, Anadolu reported on Friday.

“It is my understanding that UN officials are waiting for assurances that conditions are safe enough for two convoys of 20 trucks each to proceed from Turkey to eastern Aleppo,” Jens Laerke told a press conference in Geneva. He told journalists to ask the Syrian regime why it refuses to allow the humanitarian convoy to enter Aleppo, noting that there are about 250,000 people in the eastern part of the city who are in urgent need of aid.

According to news reports, two aid convoys, each of around 20 trucks and carrying mostly food and flour, crossed into Syria from the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu, about 40 km west of Aleppo, on Tuesday. However, they made little progress beyond the border.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura described it as “regrettable” that Damascus has yet to provide the necessary permits. “Those facilitation letters, final permission for the UN to actually reach those areas has not been received,” he told an earlier press conference in the Swiss city. “That is a fact and it is particularly regrettable because we are losing time; these are days which we should have used for convoys to move with the permit to go because there is no fighting.”

A temporary ceasefire has been in place in Aleppo since Monday.