Russia vows to extend Aleppo truce as EU mulls sanctions
Humanitarian pause to continue, allowing supplies to enter city and civilians to leave; unclear for how long it will last
Russia’s defense minister said Thursday that Moscow was extending for another day a “humanitarian pause” in Aleppo scheduled to end at 1600 GMT.
On the order of President Vladimir Putin, “a decision was made to extend the ‘humanitarian pause’ by 24 hours,” Sergei Shoigu said in a statement, without specifying when the extended truce would end in the devastated Syrian city.
The United Nations meanwhile said it had received a pledge from Moscow to extend it until Saturday, the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) told AFP, after Damascus made a similar pledge.
“Russia has told the UN that they will implement a daily pause of 11 hours per day for three days, counting from today Thursday,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said in an email Thursday, as the truce in the devastated city broadly held through day one.
Syria’s military, which is backed by Moscow, said late Wednesday that it would also extend the truce until Saturday, but spoke only of an eight-hour halt to the fighting.
The ceasefire came as the EU condemned the ferocious air war waged on Aleppo over the past three weeks and threatened Russia and the Syrian regime.
At a summit on Thursday EU leaders warned Russia that they will consider sanctions over its role in the Syrian conflict if Moscow does not stop “crimes” in the devastated city of Aleppo.
As the bloc’s 28 leaders met in Brussels for a crucial discussion on their future strategy to deal with Moscow, EU President Donald Tusk said they should “keep all options open, including sanctions.”
It was a message echoed by French President Francois Hollande.
“All options are open for as long as there is not a ceasefire that is respected and for as long as there is an intention to destroy this town, Aleppo, a town of martyrs,” Hollande said as he arrived for an EU summit in Brussels.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said only a permanent ceasefire was acceptable.
“What is happening in Aleppo with Russian support is completely inhuman,” she told reporters.
“That is why we have to work as fast as possible to get a ceasefire in place — and not only one over several hours a day and than again many hours of bombardment, but a lasting ceasefire.”
The pause in fighting in the besieged rebel-held east of the city began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Thursday, but the United Nations said it was not able to dispatch aid convoys or begin evacuations on day one of the truce because warring parties had not provided security guarantees.
Speaking in Geneva, the head of the UN’s humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, said he hoped those in most urgent need of care could be taken out on Friday by the World Health Organization and Red Cross.
“We believe we now have all of the green lights that we need both from the Russians and the government and from the armed opposition groups,” Egeland told reporters.
He cautioned, however, that “this is Syria, so everything can go wrong at every possible opportunity.”