Situation in Syrian town of Aleppo alarming: UN special envoy

The UN Special Envoy for Syria warned Thursday that the situation in Syria's second-largest city is extremely concerning, with only two to three weeks of supplies remaining for Aleppo's desperate population.

"The city is de facto besieged because it is almost militarily completely encircled. The clock is therefore ticking, there is no doubt about that," Staffan De Mistura told the press after a weekly humanitarian taskforce meeting here.

A Russian and Syrian scheme to open corridors for those seeking to flee Aleppo was noted by the envoy, adding that it will be discussed with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"I also want to be able to have my colleagues on the humanitarian side to analyze the information they may be getting on how this Russian initiative fits in with a humanitarian initiative," he said.

The provision of humanitarian aid this month has been severely hampered by ongoing fighting between warring factions.

Latest UN figures reveal that over 1.11 million civilians have received multi-sectoral assistance since relief operations kicked off in February this year.

Though a marked improvement compared to 2015, this number falls far short of targets set by the UN.

With UN-mediated negotiations seeking to broker an end to the five-year conflict still on hold, De Mistura said efforts were ongoing in a bid to resume talks towards the end of August.

He said he will be traveling to Tehran shortly, while his team will discuss ideas with Syrian authorities in Damascus in the coming days in view of facilitating the launch of talks next month. Endit