LATEST: UN: 100,000s of Refugees in Jeopardy This Winter Because of Lack of Aid Funds
The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, met President Assad in Damascus on Monday, with the two men reportedly discussing de Mistura’s plan for a “freeze” to fighting in Aleppo.
Assad’s office posted a brief response that the plan will be considered:
President Assad has been informed by de Mistura of the main points of his initiative.
[The President said it was worthy of study and that work on it is needed…in order to re-establish security in Aleppo.
De Mistura, who took office in July, set out an “action plan” on October 30 for ceasefires in local areas to permit aid deliveries, and to lay the groundwork for peace talks.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been divided between regime and insurgent forces since July 2012.
A UN statement said de Mistura “takes note of the expressed intent of the Syrian authorities to work with the United Nations to identify common ground for implementing his proposal on incremental ‘freezes’, starting with the city of Aleppo”.
UN: 100,000s of Refugees in Jeopardy This Winter Because of Lack of Aid Funds
The UN refugee agency said Tuesday that it has been forced to cut the number of people it can help prepare for winter in Syria and Iraq because of lack of funds.
“The whole humanitarian community is facing shortfalls. People are becoming numb,” said Amin Awad, the head of UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa bureau, explaining that his agency was having to make “tough choices”.
The UNHCR said it face a shortfall of $58 million in its assistance to millions of displaced people in Syria and Iraq for winter.
As many as one million displaced people may go without blankets, kerosene, warm clothes, and other items.
Amin said about 13.6 million people have been displaced from their homes in Syria and Iraq — 3.3 million Syrians and 190,000 Iraqis who war refugees, about 7.2 million internally-displaced Syrians, and 1.9 million Iraqis displaced this year.
Head of Opposition Coalition: US Airstrikes on Islamic State “Doing Nothing About the Problem of Assad Regime”
Hadi al-Bahra, the President of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC), warned on Monday that US airstrikes against the Islamic State are doing nothing about the issue of a deadly Assad regime:
The coalition is fighting the symptom of the problem, which is Isis, without addressing the main cause, which is the regime.
People see coalition planes hitting Isis targets but turning a blind eye to Assad’s air force, which is using barrel bombs and rockets against civilian targets in Aleppo and elsewhere….
People feel there is a hidden agenda and cooperation between the coalition and Assad’s forces because Assad assumes he has a free hand.
Bahra challenged the refusal of the US to coordinate its aerial operations with the Free Syrian Army:
The FSA is being ignored completely and this is weakening the international coalition operation because it is not able to achieve results on the ground.
The whole operation has been confused. Air strikes will not be able to win the battle against extremism. You have to defeat Isis on the ground. And you have to deal with the main cause and source of extremism, which is the regime itself.
Bahra also criticized the proposal of UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, presented to President Assad on Monday, for a “freeze” in fighting in Aleppo.
The opposition laeder said local ceasefires would only benefit the regime unless they are part of a comprehensive, negotiated political solution.
Video: Officials Tour Recaptured Gas Field in Central Syria
Syrian officials tour the al Sha’er gas field, one of the largest in the country, after it was recaptured last week by regime forces.
At the end of October, the Islamic State took the field, near Palmyra in Homs Province, for the second time. The jihadists held it for a week before a regime counter-attack reclaimed the area.
The loss of al-Sha’er would further restrict energy supplies in Syria, already limited by the Islamic State’s possession of most of the country’s oilfields.
