War-torn Syria’s food shortage may lead to U.N.-sponsored humanitarian airdrops

The United Nations is moving toward organizing airdrops of food, medicine and other aid into besieged communities in Syria because the government has failed to allow comprehensive access over land routes.

Ramzy E. Ramzy, a U.N. deputy special envoy to Syria, told reporters Thursday that airdrops would be authorized if the government did not meet the expectations of both the U.N. and the International Syria Support Group, a coalition of 20 countries working to end five years of civil war.

The coalition’s humanitarian task force announced Thursday that air deliveries in the war-ravaged nation were “an option on the table.” The U.N. Security Council has called an emergency meeting for Friday to discuss the possibility.

Still, Ramzy said airdrops were “not imminent” and “not a substitute for land delivery.”

Humanitarian access has been cut off to large parts of Syria for much of the war, stranding hundreds of thousands of people without regular access to food.

The U.N. estimates that 592,700 people live under siege in 19 areas — and says that government troops are blocking delivery of aid to 16 of those areas. The government contends those areas are controlled by terrorists, its term for rebels fighting to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The international coalition had set a June 1 deadline for the Syrian government to allow comprehensive aid distribution by land, with the understanding that failure to do so would trigger air deliveries.

On Wednesday — the day of the deadline — an aid convoy entered the besieged suburb of Daraya, less than six miles southwest of Damascus, for the first time since 2012.

Daraya, an opposition-controlled city that once had a population of more than 250,000, was one of the first areas to protest Assad’s rule. With most residents having fled during years of vicious fighting between pro-government forces and armed rebel factions, the U.N. now estimates the population at 4,000.

Crucially, the convoy did not contain any food relief. But the U.N. still viewed it as a victory — one that Ramzy attributed to “extraordinary efforts” by Russia, an ally of Assad.

The U.S., France and other Western countries, however, said the convoy was not enough and that the U.N. should still push ahead with airdrops.

“While this delivery ... is an important step, it is far from sufficient to providing the kind of relief to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian people are who in need,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, told reporters Wednesday.

A second convoy was scheduled to enter Daraya on Friday, but that has now been called into question.

“The aid delegation promised families and civilians they would come back with food, asking people what they needed and promising to deliver, but today we were surprised to be told that the visit was canceled,” Malek Rifaii, a member of the city’s opposition-affiliated Local Council, said in an interview on social media Thursday.

“We weren’t given any explanation,” he said.

Jan Egeland, a U.N. senior advisor, said Thursday that he could not confirm that the food convoy would go on Friday but that there were “clear indications it will go within a very short period of time.”

“We have been waiting for years for this,” he said. “Another day is not the issue.”

Carrying out air deliveries is far from simple.

Although an air bridge has already been established for the eastern desert city of Dair Alzour, a government-controlled enclave that is surrounded by Islamic State militants, U.N. officials stressed the challenges of conducting similar drops in urban areas.

“We need space, a lot of open space, to be able to do airdrops,” Egeland said. “We can do that in Dair Alzour.”

“In urban besieged areas, it will probably have to be delivered by helicopters,” requiring clearance from the government because the U.N. would rely on private flight companies, he said.

Protecting humanitarian aircraft is another primary concern. “The consent of the government is necessary to ensure security,” Ramzy said.

But even that may not be sufficient, he added, because other armed groups scattered around the country have the ability to bring down aircraft.

The tenuous aid situation in Syria is accompanied by setbacks on the diplomatic front.

This week, the rebels’ chief negotiator, Mohammed Alloush, resigned from the High Negotiations Committee, a Saudi-backed umbrella organization that has participated in peace talks with the government.

He blamed his resignation on “the stubbornness of the regime and its continued bombardments and aggressions against the Syrian people.”

There are also indications that a hard-won cessation of hostilities, shepherded by the U.S. and Russia, has all but broken down. On Tuesday, an airstrike on the city of Idlib, which is held by a hard-line Islamist coalition that includes the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front, killed at least 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog.

Pro-opposition activists blamed Russia for the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the allegation, issuing a statement that it did not carry out any combat missions in the area.

Bulos is a special correspondent.