Lavrov Says Rebels Blocking Aid, Evacuations in Syria’s Ghouta

Russia said on Wednesday that militants in Syria’s besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta were blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave, despite Moscow’s announcement of a humanitarian corridor.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would continue to support the Syrian army in totally defeating the “terrorist threat”, Reuters reported.

“Russia together with the Syrian government has already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in eastern Ghouta,” Lavrov told the Geneva forum.

“Now it is the turn to act for militants entrenched there, who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave, as well as for their sponsors.”

Hundreds of people have been killed in 11 days of bombing by Russian-backed Syrian government forces of eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel bastion near the capital. The campaign, in a swathe of rural territory and towns where 400,000 people are under siege, is one of the fiercest of a war now entering its eighth year.

The UN Security Council, including veto-wielding member Russia, passed a resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day ceasefire across all Syria, but it excludes militant groups on the UN terrorism blacklist, which Moscow and Damascus say are the targets of their “anti-terrorism campaign”.

Instead, Russia has proposed five-hour daily truces in eastern Ghouta, to allow residents to leave and aid to enter the enclave through a humanitarian corridor. The first such truce, on Tuesday, faced some challenges when bombing and shelling resumed after a brief lull. Moscow and Damascus said the terrorists attacked the corridor, which the terrorists deny.

Lavrov’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Russia was doing its part to establish the ceasefire, but other countries needed to act as well. Russia was “still assisting with the counter-terrorist operation”, since the ceasefire plan backed by the Security Council excluded terrorists, she said.

Asked about the deaths of children in the bombing, she said children from families supporting President Bashar al-Assad had also been killed, and Russia had entered the war in 2015 to protect them and to stop the violence spreading to Russia.

“How about seven years ago when the West supported this Arabic Spring thing and everybody was so enthusiastic about that, did you at that time think about children? No, nobody.

”Everybody was thinking about democracy. And now you are thinking about the children. Don’t you think it’s too late for the West to start thinking about the children?”

Separately, The Syrian Envoy to the United Nations Hussam Edin Aala said his country cannot use chemical weapons because it has none.

Syria cannot possibly be using chemical weapons because it very simply has none in its possession,” Aala told the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

The envoy’s speech follows the accusations of US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert against Damascus, claiming that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons near Idlib’s city of Saraqib.