GENEVA — U.N. officials on Thursday all but rejected a call by a group of world powers for the United Nations to act unilaterally to air drop food to besieged Syrians, saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad has final say on any such deliveries.
The announcement by the U.N came as Syrian state TV reported that an explosion had struck outside a mosque in the coastal government stronghold of Latakia, inflicting casualties. State TV said the blast occurred as people were leaving the Khulafa Rashideen mosque after afternoon prayers.
The TV channel said the blast killed and wounded several people, but did not report numbers. It broadcast footage showing at least one wounded person being carried into a vehicle as two ambulances parked outside the mosque.
The explosion came a week after a series of coordinated bombings struck the coastal city of Tartus and the town of Jableh on the Syrian coast, killing some 160 people.
The coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus have been a government stronghold since the country’s conflict began in 2011.
Assad’s forces have surrounded most of the 19 U.N.-designated “besieged areas” and there was no immediate sign that his government would authorize aid air deliveries. The U.N. has already dropped aid onto the city of Deir Ezzor, which is seen as mostly loyal to Assad but is surrounded by Islamic State group fighters.
The International Syria Support Group, a coalition of world powers, had called for the World Food Programme to unilaterally deliver food to besieged Syrians starting June 1 if access wasn’t granted by the Syrian government. Thursday’s comments from Jan Egeland, a top humanitarian aid coordinator for Syria, and Ramzy Ramzy, deputy to U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, suggested that the U.N. is unwilling to take that step.
Egeland said the companies who are subcontracted to carry out airlifts for WFP require government authorization. He added that the government in Damascus hasn’t provided permission for nearly all of the areas in need.
The two U.N. officials said fighting near the northern city of Idlib is jeopardizing a vaccination campaign there. Opposition activists said earlier this week that airstrikes on the village of Kfar Takhareem destroyed two vaccination centers.
