UNITED NATIONS, August 22 /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin has called on the U.S.-led coalition to look in the mirror more frequently and analyze its own operations in Syria instead of spreading provocative insinuations about the Russian military operation in Syria at the UN Security Council.
"Regretfully, some UN Security Council members have been tactless and openly unscrupulous in discussing the situation in Syria. They try to push provocative insinuations about the Russian Aerospace Forces operations in Syria through the United Nations Security Council while being reticent about their own actions, which can hardly be called justified," the Russian diplomat told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
He called attention to the fact that dozens of air strikes, which the coalition forces had delivered at the residential quarters in the Syrian town of Manbij, killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of civilians, including women and children.
"Civilians have received no aid. The only time when civilians tried to leave Manbij was on July 19 when an air strike delivered at a refugee column hurt about 200 people," Churkin said. He also recalled that the U.S. coalition air strikes had killed 28 people, including 7 children, in Al-Ghandour near Manbij on July 28.
"We are discussing the situation in Syria for a second time. However, I have not heard a word from the coalition members about that incident. I would like to urge our western colleagues to tone down their rhetoric; look in the mirror more frequently and analyze their own actions and the actions of their fosterlings. The world will see fewer tragedies then," Churkin said.
Talking about the proposed humanitarian pauses, which are established for delivering relief aid into Aleppo, Churkin said they should not be used by insurgents to replenish their resources, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Monday.
Churkin said that the parameters of humanitarian cargoes, including the initiative to establish a 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo with participation of UN special agencies, were being defined. "We firmly believe that humanitarian lulls should not be used by the insurgents to replenish their resources and regroup their forces like it used to be in the past. We hope that the opposition sponsors will be able to make it (the opposition) more agreeable and committed to the terms of future agreements," the diplomat said.
Churkin emphasized that it was necessary to tighten control over the passage of cargoes via the Turkish-Syrian border in order to prevent terrorists from using humanitarian corridors for strengthening their ranks with more militants and receiving fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition.
On August 18, the Russian Defense Ministry said it was ready to support the United Nations initiative to establish weekly 48-hour pauses in military hostilities in Aleppo for holding humanitarian operations in the city. The first pause in fighting is to be introduced this week.
UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien said on Monday that the United Nations would send 70 trucks with food and essentials to eastern Aleppo if a ceasefire agreement was reached.
A number of Western countries on Monday welcomed Russia’s decision to support the United Nations initiative. However, they insisted that the Syrian government should not use the humanitarian pauses in Aleppo to regroup and build up its forces ahead of storming rebel-held strongholds in Aleppo’s eastern outskirts.
The United Nations Security Council discussed the humanitarian situation in Syria on Monday. The delegations of the United States, Britain and Ukraine blamed Russia for civilian deaths in Syria. British Ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft cited a report by the Human Rights Watch non-governmental organization that claimed that Russian warplanes used flame bombs in Syria. He urged Russia to stop using that weapon in its air campaign.