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                    UN Orders Syria Humanitarian Aid Access

   by VOA News

   The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution on
   Syria's humanitarian crisis, demanding that both sides in the conflict
   provide immediate access to deliver essential aid to millions of people
   in desperate need.
   The 15-member council united on Syria for the first time Saturday.
   Russia and China - which have shielded Syria's government throughout
   the country's three-year-long civil war - voted in favor of the
   resolution.
   Saturday's vote does not threaten sanctions; Russia insisted that this
   reference be dropped from the original Western- and Arab-backed text.
   But it does express the council's intent to take "further steps" in the
   case of non-compliance.
   The resolution demands immediate cross-border aid access and condemns
   rights abuses by the Syrian government and armed opposition groups.
   It also insists that all parties immediately cease all attacks against
   civilians and stop the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas
   - including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel
   bombs.
   U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after
   the vote that the resolution should not have been necessary, because
   "humanitarian assistance is not something to be negotiated; it is
   something to be allowed by virtue of international law."
   The U.N. chief said it is "profoundly shocking... that both sides are
   besieging civilians as a tactic of war."
   Meanwhile, fighting continued on the ground in Syria.
   Government forces captured two rebel-held areas on the edge of the
   Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after days of intense fighting near a
   decades-old cease-fire line between Syria and Israel.
   A Syrian television report, citing a military official, said troops and
   pro-government gunmen known as National Defense Forces captured the
   areas of Rasm al-Hour and Rasm al-Sad, south of the town of Quneitra.
   The Britain-based Syrian Observatory For Human Rights confirmed troops
   were on the offensive, adding that the air force was taking part in the
   attack.
   The Observatory also said Syrian air raids had hit a rebel-held bastion
   north of Damascus while clashes raged on the outskirts of the capital.
   In neighboring Lebanon, a suicide attacker blew himself up at an army
   checkpoint, killing two people after soldiers tried to search his car
   in the eastern town of Hermel, a Shi'ite Hezbollah militia stronghold.
   Areas under Hezbollah domination in eastern Lebanon and southern Beirut
   have suffered a string of violent attacks in recent months, since the
   group acknowledged it has sent fighters to support President Bashar
   al-Assad's troops in Syria's war.
   At least one of the dead in the suicide attack was a solider. Until
   Saturday, the attacks had all killed civilians.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/un-orders-syria-humanitarian-aid-acce
   ss/1857188.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/un-orders-syria-humanitarian-aid-access/1857188.html