The rebel-held town of Nashabiyah in Syria has received its first humanitarian aid convoy since November 2017. But the UN Syria envoy underlined that an uptick in fighting has made the situation "violent and worrying."
The United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council on Wednesday that the conflict in Syria was as bad as it has ever been in its nearly eight-year duration.
"This is as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I have seen in my time as special envoy," De Mistura said. He has been the UN's negotiator there since 2014.
His warning came the same day that more than 7,200 people in Syria received aid and food supplies from a UN convoy, the first to access the area in months.
Overdue aid
Located 19 kilometers (12 miles) east of Damascus in the eastern Ghouta area, the rebel-held town, which is home to 400,000 people, had not received aid since the end of November 2017.
"It is way overdue," said Linda Tom of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Damascus.
Tom said the government only granted permission for access to Nashabiyah. The convoy of nine trucks contained medicine, food and nutritional aid, supplied by the UN and the Syrian Red Crescent.
De-escalation agreements ignored
De Mistura also reiterated UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' prior calls on all parties involved in the fighting "to de-escalate immediately and unconditionally." However, previous de-escalation agreements backed by Russia have proven difficult to sustain, and violence has flared across Syria in the last few weeks.
In her remarks to the Security Council on Wednesday, US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, called on Russia to use its influence over Syrian President Bashar Assad to draw down the conflict.
"Now is the time for Russia to use that leverage," she said, to "push the Assad regime to do what it plainly does not want to do."
Russia intervened in the war in 2015 on the side of Assad and has been pushing for a peace settlement in talks separate from the UN-led ones in Geneva.
Government troops have intensified a military campaign against eastern Ghouta, renewing a push to seize the area where a number of towns have been held by the rebels since 2012.
Who's fighting in the Syria conflict?
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
Image: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/A. Al-Bushy
The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L. Pitarakis
The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass/M. Metzel
The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Brandon
The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
Image: Reuters
The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
Image: Getty Images/A. Sik
The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
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Chemical weapons a 'red line'
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said that "France will strike" if chemical weapons were used against civilians in Syria, but that he was yet to see proof of their use.
In May 2017, Macron said he had set a "red line" at the use of chemical weapons.
During a trip to Amman, Jordan on Wednesday, US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration had a "fairly well advanced" peace plan, which has been under development for a number of months.
Regarding Syria, Tillerson said he was "quite concerned" about a recent cross-border escalation between Iran and Israel on Syrian territory and called on Iran to withdraw its military from the Syrian conflict.
