Britain Raps Damascus for Denied Aid Access
President Bashar Assad's government bears overwhelming responsibility for an arbitrary and unjustified refusal to allow aid convoys access to 3.5 million Syrians in hard to reach areas, Britain said Friday.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told the Security Council that decisions are "often arbitrary and unjustified" and that Syrian soldiers remove medical supplies from humanitarian convoys at checkpoints, British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said.
"The Syrian government is front and center in bearing the overwhelming responsibility," Grant told reporters after Amos briefed the Council behind closed doors.
"What we are seeing is a pattern of arbitrary denial of access in violation of international humanitarian law and despite the Council's demands," he said.
In February, the U.N. Security Council urged all parties to the Syrian conflict to allow aid to cross conflict lines and borders to reach civilians.
Regime barrel bombings continue unabated, killing more than 200 a day and leaving a devastating impact on civilians, Grant said.
Of 220,000 Syrians living under siege, 80 percent remain besieged by the Syrian government and of the total only 14,000 have been reached in the last month, the ambassador added.
There are 3.5 million people in difficult to reach areas with no access to essential aid, hampered by regime obstacles, none of whom have had access in the last month, he said.
That figure increased by one million since January 1, he said.
Since February, the Syrian government has allowed aid in through only one regime-held border crossing with Turkey in the northeast of the country.
"We need a blanket approval, a systemic, systematic change of approach by Damascus," Grant said.
The U.N. Security Council would now consider how to force compliance with its resolution, the British ambassador said.
"The majority of the responsibility lies with the regime so now it is important that the Council does consider what steps it can take in the event of non-compliance," Grant said.
Human Rights Watch has called on the United Nations to take punitive measures against Damascus for failing to comply with the aid access resolution, including an arms embargo.
Source: Agence France Presse
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