Russian-Ordered Truce in East Ghouta Is Not Enough, Says U.N.

A daily five-hour cessation of hostilities in the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus is not enough time to deliver aid or organize civilian evacuations, a senior United Nations official said on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

“I know of no humanitarian actor … who thinks that five hours is enough for us to be able to deliver relief into eastern Ghouta and to organize orderly medical evacuations out,” said Jan Egeland, head of the U.N.’s humanitarian task force for Syria.

His comments come days after Moscow called for a five-hour daily pause to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations. The lull in fighting went into effect for the first time on Tuesday, but there have been no aid deliveries or civilian evacuations since, except for an elderly Pakistani man and his wife who left the town of Douma on Thursday.

Egeland noted that no aid has been sent to the opposition enclave because “we did not get a single facilitation letter by the government.” However, he said that he hoped aid convoys would be able to enter the area “in the next few days,” according to Agence France-Presse.

Meanwhile, Damascus and Moscow continued to accuse rebels of preventing civilians from leaving Eastern Ghouta. Maj.-Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, chief of the Russian center for reconciliation in Syria, claimed on Thursday that militants were publicly executing civilians who were trying to leave, the AP said.

Syrian state media also said on Thursday that rebels were prohibiting civilians from exiting the enclave, according to the AP. Rebels have repeatedly dismissed such charges.

There are roughly 400,000 people trapped in the suburbs east of the capital. Escalated attacks on the region have killed nearly 600 people since February 18. On Saturday the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria, but the agreement has yet to take hold on the ground.

Turkey Suffers Deadly Day in Afrin as Aid Enters Kurdish Enclave

At least eight Turkish troops were killed and 13 others wounded in battles with Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a military statement.

The casualties make Thursday one of the deadliest days for Turkey since it launched an offensive targeting the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin in January. Thursday’s death toll brings to at least 40 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since “Operation Olive Branch” was launched.

Thursday’s heavy fighting comes days after Turkey dispatched police and paramilitary special forces to Afrin ahead of what Ankara has described as a “new battle” in the Kurdish enclave.

Meanwhile, a 29-truck convoy carrying aid for 50,000 displaced people entered the Kurdish enclave on Thursday for the first time since the start of the offensive, the International Committee for the Red Cross said, according to Reuters. The convoy was carrying 430 metric tons of food, mattresses, blankets, winter clothes and hygiene kits, Reuters said, citing an ICRC statement.

North Korea Denies Chemical Weapons Links With Syria

North Korea on Thursday denied having helped the Syrian government develop chemical weapons, Reuters reported.

The statement came after a leaked U.N. report claimed North Korea had provided Damascus with chemical weapon-making material.

“As we have clearly said several times, our republic does not develop, produce and stockpile chemical weapons and opposes chemical weapons themselves,” a spokesman at the foreign ministry’s research institute of American studies was quoted as saying by North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency.

The U.N. report, which was leaked this week, claims that North Korea sent 40 shipments of supplies, including high-heat, acid-resistant tiles, corrosion-resistant valves and thermometers, to Syria between 2012 and 2017. It is believed the tiles could be used to set up facilities in which chemical weapons are produced.

On Wednesday, Robert Wood, U.S. disarmament ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, said there was a history of chemical weapons links between North Korea and Syria.

Recommended Reads:

• The Financial Times: Russian Business First in Line for Spoils of Syrian War
• Time Magazine: Life Under Assad’s Bombs in a Damascus Suburb
• Al Jazeera: Where Is Al-Qaida in Syria?
• The Guardian: ‘Damn The Whole World’: Eastern Ghouta’s Rescuers Struggle to Cope
• BBC: Eastern Ghouta Syria: The Neighbourhoods Below the Bombs