GENEVA: The United Nations called on Thursday for a humanitarian pause to allow an estimated 20,000 trapped civilians to escape the Syrian city of Raqqa, and urged the US-led coalition to rein in air strikes that have caused casualties.
“Boats on the Euphrates must not be attacked, people who come out cannot risk air raids when they come out,” Jan Egeland, humanitarian adviser on Syria, told reporters in Geneva.
“So now is the time to think of possibilities, pauses or otherwise that might facilitate the escape of civilians, knowing that Daesh fighters are doing their absolute best to keep them in place,” he said.
The United Nations is still assessing the outcome of talks held this week in Riyadh between the three Syrian opposition groups — who failed to unite — Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, the UN deputy special envoy for Syria, said.
Asked whether Syria peace talks would be held in Geneva in September, he said: “Based on our assessment of what happened in Riyadh we will decide how to move ahead in the future.”
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UN calls for pause, sparing civilians in Syria’s Raqqa
UN calls for pause, sparing civilians in Syria’s Raqqa
UN Security Council demands Iran halt attacks on Gulf states
- Resolution says attacks breach international law and pose ‘serious threat to international peace and security’
- Iranian actions aimed at closing international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz also condemned
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Wednesday passed a resolution calling for Iran to immediately halt its attacks on Gulf states, saying they breach international law and pose a “serious threat to international peace and security.”
The resolution, passed by 13 votes with two abstentions, “demands the immediate cessation of all attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.”
It also “condemns any actions or threats by the Islamic Republic of Iran aimed at closing, obstructing, or otherwise interfering with international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran has struck Gulf states in retaliation to US-Israeli attacks that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Islamic republic has also fired on commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial sea passage for the global fuel trade, in a bid to inflict pain on the global economy.
The resolution, passed by 13 votes with two abstentions, “demands the immediate cessation of all attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.”
It also “condemns any actions or threats by the Islamic Republic of Iran aimed at closing, obstructing, or otherwise interfering with international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran has struck Gulf states in retaliation to US-Israeli attacks that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Islamic republic has also fired on commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial sea passage for the global fuel trade, in a bid to inflict pain on the global economy.
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