1st LD Writethru: UN officials voice frustration over lack of cease-fire in Syria

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Senior UN officials have expressed frustration on Wednesday over the failure to implement a Security Council resolution that demands a cease-fire throughout Syria.

"There are no words to express our frustration over the collective failure of the international community to end this war. But that frustration is nothing compared to the suffering and destruction visited ceaselessly upon the Syrian people. We are here again today because the brief respite you unanimously demanded only days ago in Resolution 2401 has not materialized," Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council.

The airstrikes, shelling, and ground offensives have continued in Syria. There are even reports of yet another chlorine gas attack, said Feltman. "What we need is implementation of 2401, and that is not happening."

Resolution 2401 affirms that the cessation of hostilities shall not apply to military operations against terrorist groups, he said. "But there must be a frank assessment of what this means in relation to the humanitarian tragedy we are witnessing in Eastern Ghouta."

The scale of the Syrian government's "indiscriminate military attacks" against the rebel-held enclave cannot be justified on the basis of targeting fighters of Al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group, said Feltman, who also condemned shelling from Eastern Ghouta that has injured or killed civilians in nearby Damascus.

"Efforts to combat terrorism do not supersede obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law," he said.

Feltman noted that the United Nations has not seen any confirmation by the Syrian government of its commitment to implementing Resolution 2401, which was passed in the Security Council unanimously last Saturday.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, who briefed the council before Feltman, said that more than 580 people have reportedly been killed and over 1,000 others wounded due to air and ground-based strikes in Eastern Ghouta since Feb. 18, when government troops intensified efforts to re-take the rebel stronghold.

At the same time, he said, hundreds of rockets from Eastern Ghouta into Damascus have reportedly killed 15 people and injured more than 200 others.

Lowcock said UN convoys are ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations. They include a 45-truck convoy with aid for 90,000 people in Eastern Ghouta. But UN humanitarian workers have not been given permission to access those locations since the adoption of Resolution 2401.

No civilians have been able to leave Eastern Ghouta and there has been no improvement in the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel-held enclave in the country, he added.

"What the Syrian people need has been made abundantly clear: protection, access to basic goods and services, an end to sieges, respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law. You have unanimously supported all this in passing Resolution 2401," he told the Security Council. Enditem