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US fails to provide security guarantees for aid delivery to Syria's Rukban camp — Lavrov

The Russian top diplomat says the US has failed to provide sufficient security guarantees for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the refugee camp Rukban in southern Syria

SOCHI, May 3. /TASS/. The United States has failed to provide sufficient security guarantees for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the refugee camp Rukban in southern Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Thursday.

"As far as the Rukban refugee camp is concerned from the standpoint of delivering humanitarian aid there, the Americans have long refused to open it to humanitarian convoys on the pretext the Syrian government allegedly refuses to give its consent," he said. "This is not so. All issues between the Syrian government and humanitarian organizations have been resolved. In fact, the United States fails to provide sufficient security guarantees for the delivery of humanitarian cargoes to that camp."

Lavrov said the United States suggested the humanitarian supplies be brought to the border of the Rukban camp, where its residents would be able to distribute them on their own.

"We have been able to see more than once in Eastern Aleppo and in Eastern Ghouta humanitarian aid delivered in this way was either seized by militants or sold at exorbitant prices. This is not a way out. It is not a solution," he stated.

"Let me say once again that the whole range of issues connected with normalization in southern Syria near the Jordanian border requires comprehensive consideration," Lavrov added.