UN halts Syria humanitarian task force amid intense fighting

The United Nations has suspended a meeting of its humanitarian task force in Syria amid concerns over the ongoing conflict in the Middle Eastern country.

Speaking at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Thursday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that he had decided to stop the meeting after just eight minutes, arguing it made “no sense” to plan aid deliveries when they would not be let into the humanitarian besieged areas.

"Not one single convoy in one month has reached any of the humanitarian besieged areas," de Mistura said, blaming relentless fighting.

The UN envoy renewed a call for a weekly 48-hour humanitarian pause in the embattled northwestern city of Aleppo.

Aleppo has been divided since 2012 between government forces in the west and the Takfiri terrorists in the east. Syrian forces have been engaged in a major operation to liberate the militant-held parts of the city as well as the province with the same name.

Elsewhere in his comments, de Mistura said the issue of a humanitarian pause in Aleppo would be the main topic of a meeting later on Thursday of the countries that make up the International Support Group for Syria (ISSG), which sit on the humanitarian task force.

The UN official also stressed that the task force's co-chairs, Russia and the United States, still want a political solution to the crisis in Syria.

SS