No tangible results despite months of promising diplomacy with Damascus, says UN envoy

More than 50 per cent of the Syrian population suffers from food insecurity

UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen during a meeting with the Syrian Foreign Minister in Damascus. EPA

A top UN envoy told the Security Council on Monday that despite months of promising diplomacy, there have been no tangible results for the Syrian people.

“Months of potentially significant diplomacy have not translated into concrete outcomes for Syrians – at home or abroad – or real moves in the political process,” UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said.

Mr Pedersen expressed hope that there would be positive developments soon.

Otherwise, he said, it would be another missed chance to bring the Syrian conflict to a negotiated end, especially at a time when the effects from the crisis are “deepening”.

Mr Pedersen appealed to Damascus to work proactively with the UN in pursuit of a political path, insisting that “a Syrian-Syrian track, and a wider process of steps-for-steps confidence building" were needed.

Britain's UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, called on the Syrian regime to uphold its international law commitments and co-operate with the UN.

“We encourage a resumption of constitutional committee talks in Geneva, without further delay, and without further excuses,” Ms Woodward said.

The UN’s director of aid operations, Ramesh Rajasingham, said Syria's socio-economic conditions continue to deteriorate and more than 50 per cent of the population is suffering from food insecurity.

He told the Council that cross-border assistance is a “matter of life and death” for millions of people in north-west Syria.

Mr Rajasingham reaffirmed the UN’s readiness to provide assistance should bilateral discussion with Syria restore cross-border access.

“We continue to engage on the terms outlined in that letter and the modalities that are fundamental to our principled operations.”

Washington’s top envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, accused Russia of being fully responsible for the lapse in UN cross-border deliveries of humanitarian assistance through Bab Al Hawa on the Turkish border.

“The Assad regime announcement to allow UN aid deliveries through Bab Al Hawa acknowledges the need for cross-border assistance but it includes unacceptable restrictions … that would hinder relief and put humanitarians, including UN personnel, at risk,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield said.

“We must remember that the regime has a record of impeding UN humanitarian activities in Syria. We've seen that time and time again for more than a decade."