Pro-Assad Areas Face Attacks in Damascus and Homs
More than 50 people were killed in attacks on regime strongholds in Damascus and Homs, the New York Times reports, citing the Syrian state press.
The attacks came a day after President Bashar al-Assad announced he would run for reelection for another seven-year term in power. That timing “underscored the uncertainties around the elections planned for June 3, which government opponents widely regard as a sham,” the paper wrote. Syria’s government is holding up the election as a symbol of its legitimacy, saying that 17 candidates have registered to run for president,]2 AFP reports.
“It remains unclear how the vote can be carried out safely amid the war, while insurgents still strike in the heart of government territory and the government bombards insurgent-held areas in major cities like Aleppo on a daily basis.”
Also on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch issued a report documenting what it said were at least 85 barrel bomb regime attacks on Aleppo since a U.N. resolution called on all parties to stop the use of indiscriminate weapons on civilian areas.
U.N. Says It Can’t Deliver Aid Without Regime Consent
As humanitarian groups call on the U.N. to deliver cross-border aid to Syria’s most needy – with or without government permission – the U.N. itself said it can’t be done without the regime’s consent.
“The organization can engage in activities within the territory of a member state only with the consent of that government of that state,” said one U.N. official, quoted by Reuters.
The problem, as humanitarian groups see it, is that the government has restricted the flow of aid to areas under rebel control – starving and depriving those populations of support, as a punishment for opposing regime rule. That’s left millions of Syrians without access to the most basic human needs.
To reach them, the U.N. says it would either need Syrian government consent or a resolution invoking Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which deals with threats to international peace and security.
This week dozens of lawyers from around the world wrote an open letter to the U.N., making a legal case for ignoring those rules, and going in anyway.
Aid groups working in Syria say they are frustrated at how the U.N. is handling what has now become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, “accusing it of excluding them and withholding information needed for assisting millions in need.”
OPCW to Investigate Alleged Chlorine Gas Attacks
The global chemical weapons watchdog monitoring the removal of Syria’s chemical stockpile said it would be investigating claims of new attacks, using chlorine gas against a civilian population.
Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said “a mission would be created to establish facts” around the incidents, the Guardian reports.
Syria’s opposition and human-rights monitors say the Syrian regime is responsible for a series of deadly chlorine gas attacks since February. Western powers, including the U.S. and France, have backed those claims. Syria’s government has swiftly denied them, blaming rebel groups instead.
Syria’s government is taking criticism for missing a key deadline to hand over its chemical weapons, part of its obligation to a U.S.-Russian deal brokered last year. Chlorine gas wasn’t specifically on the list of chemicals banned in that arrangement, but analysts say the use of them in a attack would violate international law.
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