Russia & Turkey to allow more time for Idlib withdrawal - UN Special Envoy for Syria

Russia and Turkey have said that they will allow “more time” for opposition groups to withdraw from a de-escalation zone in Syria’s Idlib, which has been spared air raids for more than a month, a senior humanitarian adviser to the UN said today.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva today (18 Oct) after a meeting of the International Syria Support Group's Humanitarian Access Task Force, Jan Egeland, the Senior Adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Syria expressed “relief” that further violence in the north-west of the country had been put on hold.
He said “the Russian and the Turkish side have indicated that indeed more time will be given to implement the agreement,” adding that “some of the first deadlines have passed or is being passed, there will be more time for diplomacy and that is a great relief to us, because if one is to follow a military logic that has too often been followed in this war alone, it would be horrific news for civilians but also for humanitarians of whom there are 12,000 colleagues in Idlib.”
After more than seven years of fighting that has left hundreds of thousands of Syrians dead, uprooted millions more and enmeshed the interests of several foreign powers, Egeland stressed the value of the current deal between Russia and Turkey, who are the guarantors of a proposed demilitarized zone in Idlib.
He said “we have now had five weeks without any air raids,” adding that “I can’t remember such a period for the last three years in Idlib. It’s a calm through this very sensitive, complex, difficult area full of three million civilians. It is a welcome calm.”
In addition to opposition groups, some three million people live in Idlib.
Many are there after fleeing other areas of Syria which have been reclaimed by Government forces, most recently the provinces of Dar’a and Quneitra in the south-east, as well as Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus.
Egeland said, “The big battles have ended in most of the country” but Idlib “could still become the worst battle yet.”
He explained that even if the opposition groups including Al-Nusra withdrew their heavy weapons from the contact line, they would “of course” embed themselves in built-up areas of Idlib, leaving “a million civilians engulfed” in conflict.
He continued, “This is a fantastic deal so far because it prevents bloodshed, it has to continue like that,” adding that “if there is fighting, if there will be war, and even if it is only against those listed groups, it would be completely catastrophic and we as humanitarians would have a lifeline that will be broken to too many.”
While the eyes of the international community remain fixed on Idlib, there is still tremendous suffering in many areas of Syria, including in the east of the country, Egeland stressed.
He said “there is horrific fighting that nobody seems to be caring about in the very east with 15,000 people in crossfire between Islamic state fighters and the attacking forces,” stressing that even when war ends “in more and more provinces”, peace can only be built through human rights and the implementation of rule of law.
After coordinating the UN’s efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria for more than three years, liaising with the Government of Syria and the international community over safe passage for aid convoys across front lines and borders, Mr Egeland also announced that it was time for him to step down.
Mirroring Staffan de Mistura, Special Envoy for Syria, who made a similar announcement on Wednesday (17 Oct) at UN headquarters in New York, Egeland said that he would be leaving his post at the end of November.
Egeland said “It’s been very exhausting really…there hasn’t really been an evening or a weekend where we have not been dealing with an Aleppo, Homs, Dera’a, Eastern Ghouta, now Idlib, Rukban or some other issues,” adding that “so that’s the issue, and I presume I will be replaced by somebody better and that they will continue with a Task Force because the job is not even half done.”