The Guardian
Air drops to distribute aid in Syria can only go ahead only with “the benign blessing” of the Syrian government, the UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said, while insisting he was not backtracking from an apparently more assertive stance taken by the international community in May.
De Mistura’s latest remarks, at a briefing in Geneva, will anger the Syrian opposition, which believed the international community was prepared to act without the permission of the Syrian air force.
More than 20 countries agreed at a meeting co-chaired by Russia and America on 17 May that air drops should be used by a deadline of 1 June if the Syrian government was not allowing land convoys through to hundreds of thousands of Syrians besieged mainly by its forces.
But De Mistura, speaking after a meeting of the humanitarian task force on Thursday, said: “We need government permission. That is obvious.”
He sought instead to highlight where the Syrian government had given permission for land convoys in all 19 besieged areas in June. Previous Syrian government permissions to distribute aid to specific towns have often turned out to be worthless but De Mistura said the latest promises should be taken at face value, adding that preparations were under way for the use of helicopters in densely populated areas.
Detailed plans for using all three options – air bridges, air drops and air lifts – were being considered, he insisted. He added that it would be for the International Syria Support Group to decide if it could happen without Syrian permission, something that might require a vote in the UN under a Chapter VII resolution .
The UN and the World Food Programme have little desire to use air drops since they are dangerous, costly, impractical and risk leading to UN aircraft coming into a conflict with both the Russian and Syrian air force. But it appears the UN hopes by talking about the plans that it will have some leverage over the Russians and Syrians.
The UK Europe minister, David Lidington, told the House of Commons it was a test of Russia’s willingness to press the Syrian government on aid. He was urged by MPs to explain why no air drops had been attempted even though the 1 June deadline expired eight days ago. The SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh asked: “Are we really asking for permission from Assad to feed the very people he has starved?”
Lidington replied: “The Syria regime has formidable air defences of its own, and Russia has deployed its own air defence measures inside Syrian territory. For that reason, we believe that the safest and most effective means of providing humanitarian access would still be for the UN to agree terms under which that aid can be delivered. If that proves not to work, we must return to this issue”.
In one positive diplomatic development, De Mistura said Russia had reported that Syria said it had released a “substantial number” of prisoners and political detainees. It was not clear, he said, whether this was a gesture to coincide with Ramadan or instead “the unilateral action of government that is willing to address what is a huge concern.”.
De Mistura said the lack of an agreement on a cessation of hostilities meant the time was not ripe to reconvene proximity talks on the future of Syria, but that he would be staging technical talks on issues such as the future of the Syrian army and local institutions under a political transition.