By Fatih Erel
GENEVA (AA) – United Nations on Thursday urged the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Iran to help establish a 72-hour cease-fire in Syria in order to deliver humanitarian aid.
“We asked.. Russia, Turkey, Iran and U.S. that we need green lights for the full April and May UN plan which is to reach more than one million people in the hardest-to-reach and besieged civilians of Syria,” UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said after a meeting of the International Syria Support Group’s Humanitarian Access Task Force.
Noting that only one-third of this request had been approved by the Syrian regime, Egeland said this violated what the International Syria Support Group had agreed.
“We need 72-hour ceasefire in the areas where the battle is now raging,” Egeland said.
Egeland also commented on the recent chemical attack in Idlib, calling it a “very dirty” move.
“The war where more children die than grown armed men is a very dirty war. The war where children suffocate to death to toxic chemical is very very dirty war.”
The victims of Tuesday’s chemical attack in the northwestern Syrian province show symptoms of nerve agent damage, according to the World Health Organization.
On Tuesday, Syrian opposition health minister, Firas Jundi, said more than 100 civilians had been killed and 500 others, mostly children, injured in a chlorine gas attack carried out by regime warplanes in the town of Khan Shaykun, Idlib province.
Tuesday’s attack came one day after regime aircraft reportedly carried out a similar chlorine gas attack on Idlib’s town of Al-Habit, injuring dozens.
Last year, a UN-appointed investigation panel found that chemical weapons were mainly used by regime forces in 2014 and 2015. However, no actionable steps were taken.
