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Security Council to vote on Syrian ceasefire resolution
The UN Security Council (UNSC) failed to pass a resolution yesterday for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria and will instead vote on the resolution today at 4pm UK time.
The resolution, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden, calls for a 30-day nationwide truce to go into effect after 72 hours in order to allow humanitarian aid to reach the rebel held enclave of Eastern Ghouta in Syria. It was not put to a vote on Thursday due to Russian opposition.
Under the terms of the resolution the ceasefire would not apply to ISIS, al-Qaeda and the al-Nusra Front. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has insisted that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked alliance that has a presence in Eastern Ghouta, must also be excluded.
Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vasily A. Nebenzya said: “You get the impression that all of Eastern Ghouta consists only of hospitals and it is with them that the Syrian Army is fighting … this is a well-known method of information warfare.”
He dismissed reports that the Syrian government and its backers have bombed Eastern Ghouta, killing up to 400 people, as disinformation and propaganda. He said the global news media had engaged in the “coordinated and repeated spread of the same rumours in recent days”.
Russia proposed amendments to the resolution, arguing that the language was unrealistic and the Security Council could not impose a truce on Syria without consulting the parties.
It is reported that the Russian language in the resolution is less stringent and calls for all parties to “stop hostilities as soon as possible” and “work for an immediate and unconditional de-escalation of violence” and “humanitarian pause” for at least 30 days.
Britain’s representative to the UN, Stephen Hickey, said the suffering of civilians in Syria “brings shame on all of us,” and described the conditions in Eastern Ghouta as “hell on Earth”.
The UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Syria, Panos Moumtzis, echoed calls for a ceasefire: “If this is not going to convince [UN security] council members, council states, of the need for a ceasefire, honestly we don’t know what is it that would convince them.”