BALADI NEWS
The United Nations Security Council is considering a draft resolution that would call for a truce in northwestern Syria “to avoid a further deterioration of the already catastrophic humanitarian situation,” though diplomats said on Thursday that such a move is likely to face opposition from veto-power Russia.
Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed by Russian air power, have been waging an offensive in the Idlib region, the last remaining rebel-held territory in Syria’s war.
Kuwait, Germany and Belgium circulated a draft resolution, seen by Reuters, to the 15-member U.N. Security Council late on Wednesday that would express “outrage at the unacceptable levels of violence escalating in and around Idlib.” It was not immediately clear when they aimed to put it to a vote.
A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain to pass.
“Three million people — two-thirds of them women and children — are counting on your support to make this violence stop,” U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council on Thursday.
The United Nations said that since the start of hostilities in northwest Syria in April, more than 550 civilians have been killed and some 400,000 people displaced. Almost half of the displaced people are living in open-air areas or under trees.
Source: Reuters.