© REUTERS/DENIS BALIBOUSE
Special Advisor UN Jan Egeland
Special Advisor UN Jan Egeland
"A humanitarian truce could work in following manner: we get 72 hours notice to go and we get a pause in the fighting for 48 hours. That is what we need. That is what it takes to have a lifeline to places where people are at the brink of starvation.
"Eastern Aleppo has become such a place," he told reporters in Geneva, after chairing a weekly humanitarian task force meeting attended by diplomats from Russia, the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries with influence in Syria. Egeland said Turkey's coup attempt last weekend had not had any noticeable effect on aid supplies going into Syria.
Around 200,000-300,000 people in rebel-held eastern Aleppo have been cut off since fighting cut the last supply route, the Castello Road, on July 7. "We need this lifeline to be re-established," Egeland said, adding that there were "a few weeks of supplies, not even a month" in the besieged zone.
Comment: No doubt civilians are in dire need of supplies. When it is proposed, there is often an interesting correlating factor in the timing and benefits of a ceasefire for the rebel factions. When truces happen, rebel relief is the impetus; civilian relief is more than not the motivational screen.