E. Ghouta, Idlib unacceptable: French envoy

By Safvan Allahverdi

WASHINGTON (AA) - The situation in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta are the first priorities for the UN Security Council (UNSC), France's Permanent Representative to the UN Francois Delattre said Monday.

“Tragedy is happening before our eyes,” Delattre told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

Delattre’s remarks were made before he went into a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council convened to discuss the results of Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock’s visit to Syria.

Describing the situation in Syria as “unacceptable”, Delattre said more stability in the area would make help negotiations in Vienna later this month that will focus on Syria’s future and ending the civil war by bringing together the regime and opposition.

In addition, Sweden's Permanent Representative to the UN Olof Skoog said the Security Council should support Lowcock’s work on the UN's humanitarian aid to Syria where a humanitarian catastrophe continues to unfold.

Eastern Ghouta has been under siege for five years and humanitarian access to the city that is home to 400,000 civilians has been completely cut off. Hundreds of thousands are in urgent need of medical attention.

In the past eight months, the regime of Bashar al-Assad has intensified its siege of Eastern Ghouta, making it nearly impossible for food or medicine into the district and leaving thousands of patients in need of treatment.​