The cease-fire brokered by international powers with armed groups opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad should allow the billions of international aid pledged to the war-ravaged country finally reach desperate civilians unimpeded, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday.
“First, we have agreed to accelerate and expand the delivery of humanitarian aid beginning immediately,” Kerry said from Munich, Germany, where the International Syria Support Group, which includes Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have been meeting to restart peace talks among the battling factions in Syria’s five-year civil war. “Sustained delivery will begin this week, first to the areas where it is most urgently needed … and then to all the people in need throughout the country, particularly in the besieged or hard-to-reach areas, the smaller neighborhoods and towns.”
Kerry noted that the United Nations Security Council in December established unmolested aid delivery as a precursor to the now-stalled peace talks in Geneva. He also said that a new U.N. working group will meet in Geneva on Saturday to ensure aid delivery.
The “temporary cessation of hostilities” won’t take effect for a week.
“I welcome this opportunity for humanitarian aid to reach those who desperately need it, but we must be wary of efforts by Russia and the Assad regime to make it appear that they are somehow part of the solution — and not part of the problem,” House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said on Friday upon the news.
Russian warplanes have been helping Assad forces pummel Syria’s most populous town, Aleppo, for days in an effort to oust rebels backed by the U.S. and others.
They will be allowed to do so for a week before the “temporary cessation” takes hold.
“For the millions of Syrians who have been displaced by war and are facing hunger and disease, this temporary cessation of hostilities does little to instill hope that their lives will return to normal and that they will be able to enjoy the peace and freedom they deserve,” Hoyer said.
To assuage doubts, Kerry underscored that the more than dozen nations and groups represented by the International Syria Support Group unanimously agreed to halt the fighting.
“Everybody today agreed on the urgency of humanitarian access,” Kerry said. “What we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground in the field.”
