UN Security Council delays vote on Syria ceasefire

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The UN Security Council on Friday delayed a vote on a demand for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria where pro-government warplanes have been pounding the last rebel bastion near Damascus in one of the deadliest bombing campaigns of the seven-year civil war.

A draft resolution aimed at ending the carnage in the eastern Ghouta district and elsewhere in Syria will be put up for a vote in the 15-member council at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on Saturday, Kuwait’s UN Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi said.

Al-Otaibi said talks were centered on the language of one paragraph that specifically demands a cessation of hostilities for 30 days, possibly starting 72 hours after adoption, to allow aid access and medical evacuations.

"We have not been able to close the gap completely,” Sweden’s UN Ambassador Olof Skoog told reporters. “We’re not going to give up... I hope that we will adopt something forceful, meaningful, impactful tomorrow.”

July 30, 2017: A United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy delivering aid packages in the rebel-held town of Nashabiyah in eastern Ghouta for the first time in five years. /VCG Photo‍

The delay followed a flurry of last-minute negotiations on the text drafted by Sweden and Kuwait after Russia, a veto-holding ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, proposed new amendments.

"Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria,” US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley posted on Twitter.

Previous ceasefires, however, have had a poor record of ending fighting in Syria, where Assad’s forces have gained the upper hand.

The towns and farms of eastern Ghouta have been under government siege since 2013, with shortages of food, water and electricity that worsened last year. Earlier on Friday, the densely populated enclave was bombed for a sixth straight day, witnesses said.

The civilian casualties and devastation there are among the worst in Syria since the government captured rebel-held parts of Aleppo in 2016. At least 462 people have been killed, including at least 99 children, and many hundreds injured, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Friday.

Source(s): Reuters