3,000 evacuated after hours of delay: Medic
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council will vote on Monday on a French-drafted resolution to quickly deploy UN observers to Aleppo, with Russia, Syria’s ally, giving cautious backing to the measure. Russia had threatened to veto a first draft presented by France calling for observers to monitor evacuations from Aleppo and report on the protection of civilians in the besieged Syrian city. But after nearly four hours of closed-door council consultations on Sunday, a new draft was agreed. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters: “We put in some good hours of work and I think we have a good text.” French Ambassador Francois Delattre declared that the council had reached “common ground,” while US Ambassador Samantha Power anticipated the member states would vote “unanimously” at 9 am (local time). The vote, initially tabled for Sunday, was delayed until Monday to allow the Russian delegation to consult with Moscow on the final draft resolution that provides for UN and other international observers to be dispatched to eastern Aleppo. The new draft calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make arrangements, in consultation with Syrian authorities and the rebels, to allow UN monitoring of “the well-being of civilians.” Moscow had presented its own draft resolution that requested that the United Nations make “arrangements” to monitor the situation, but made no specific mention of sending observers to east Aleppo. France and the United States said the new text, which took into account Russian proposals, resulted in minor changes. “The text left standing includes all the core provisions to allow for UN monitoring, to get the 100-plus UN people ready to go to team up with the ICRC and the Syrian Red Crescent,” said Power. Evacuations of fighters and civilians from Aleppo were suspended on Sunday after gunmen attacked buses for a similar operation from two rebel-besieged villages. Syrian forces this week moved to assert full control over the east of the city, which had been held by opposition fighters since 2012. Russia, which has deployed forces in Syria to support President Bashar alAssad’s military, has vetoed six resolutions on Syria since the conflict began in March 2011. Meanwhile, an estimated 3,000 people were evacuated from the last rebel-held pocket of Syria’s Aleppo early on Monday after hours of delay, a medical official said. “About 20 buses carrying people from Aleppo have arrived” at the staging ground west of the city, said Dr Ahmad Dbis, who heads a team of doctors and volunteers coordinating evacuations. Another 25 vehicles arrived less than two hours later, he said, bringing the total evacuated this morning to around 3,000 people. Dbis said he saw families wrapped in several layers of coats getting off the buses and receiving packs of bottled water and food. One thin young boy was biting into an apple while his family sat on the cold earth behind him. More than 30 buses packed with people had waited overnight in freezing temperatures to leave Aleppo under a complex evacuation deal. Just 350 people were able to leave after Russia and Turkey urged the government to allow five buses to pass its final checkpoint, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The departure of the remaining buses had reportedly been delayed until hundreds of people could be evacuated from two northwestern villages under siege by the rebels. The Britain-based Observatory said an estimated 500 people were bussed out of Fuaa and Kafraya early on Monday. “Ten buses carrying about 500 people have left Fuaa and Kafraya and are on their way to governmentcontrolled territory in Aleppo,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. (AFP)