Russia yesterday blocked a UN Security Council demand that Syria allow immediate access to thousands of civilians trapped by a government offensive on the city of Homs, diplomats said.
\nDiplomats said Russia\u2019s opposition to the statement proposed by council members Australia and Luxembourg was a new sign of a growing international split over the 26-month old conflict.
\nThe statement sought \u201cimmediate, safe and unhindered access\u201d to Homs, where President Bashar Al Assad\u2019s forces have been joined by fighters from Lebanese group Hezbollah against rebels.
\nGovernment warplanes bombed rebel-held neighbourhoods of Syria\u2019s third city yesterday, according to Syrian activists.
\nUN leader Ban Ki-moon raised fears this week for an estimated 2,500 civilians that he said were \u201ctrapped\u201d in Homs\u2019 Old City. UN humanitarian agencies say they have medical supplies ready but cannot get in.
\nRussia, Assad\u2019s key international ally, similarly blocked a UN Security Council call last month for access to rebel held Qusayr until government forces had taken the key town.
\nAustralia and Luxembourg proposed the new statement in a bid to strengthen calls for access made by Ban and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
\nThe proposed statement expresses \u201cgrave concern about the estimated 2,500 civilians trapped in Homs.\u201d
\nIt calls on the Syrian government \u201cto facilitate immediate, safe and unhindered access, in accordance with the United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian assistance.\u201d The statement stresses that medical assistance was particularly urgent in Homs.
\nIt said rebel and government forces should allow civilians to leave Homs, and highlighted \u201cthe primary responsibility of the Syrian government in this regard.\u201d
\nRussia asked for a 24 hour delay when the statement was first proposed but when the latest deadline for agreement came up on Thursday morning, put a hold on the declaration by the 15-nation body.
\n\u201cThe Russians have asked for changes,\u201d said one UN diplomat. \u201cWhat they are asking means that there is no chance we will agree anything today, even though the situation is now urgent,\u201d added a second UN diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
\n\u201cIt is quite clear, this shows that it is impossible for us to reach an agreement on Syria,\u201d said a diplomat from a Security Council nation who confirmed the deadlock.
\nRussia and China have used their powers as permanent members of the Security Council to veto three western proposed resolutions which sought to increase pressure on Assad.
\nRussia and the United States have said they want to hold an international conference on Syria. But original plans for a meeting in May have been pushed back to at least September and some UN diplomats say they now doubt a conference can be convened.
\nThe Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, said Thursday that the fall of Homs could destroy any hopes of a political solution to the war, which Syrian activists say has left more than 100,000 dead.
\nThe government says it has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to help evacuate civilians from Homs.
\nThe UN\u2019s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said on Wednesday however that \u201cno safe passage has been offered by the parties to the conflict.\u201d
\nOCHA said that it had stockpiled medical necessities and food for 40,000 people in various parts of Homs but could not move the supplies.<\/p>\n
Source:Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russia yesterday blocked a UN Security Council demand that Syria allow immediate access to thousands of civilians trapped by a government offensive on the city of Homs, diplomats said.
\nDiplomats said Russia\u2019s opposition to the statement proposed by council members Australia and Luxembourg was a new sign of a growing international split over the 26-month old conflict.
\nThe statement sought \u201cimmediate, safe and unhindered access\u201d to Homs, where President Bashar Al Assad\u2019s forces have been joined by fighters from Lebanese group Hezbollah against rebels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}