United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres(front) briefs the Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday deplored the failure to implement a Security Council resolution that demands cease-fire in Syria.
Reporting to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 2401, Guterres said there has been no cessation of hostilities.
It is true that in some areas like Deir ez-Zor the conflict is diminishing in intensity. But violence continues in Eastern Ghouta and beyond -- including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and in Damascus and its suburbs, he said.
A Syrian tank is seen at the town of Muhamadiyeh, east of Damascus, capital of Syria, on March 6, 2018. The Syrian army on Tuesday fully captured the town of Muhamadiyeh in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside, the latest in a series of victories the Syrian army achieved in the war on the rebel groups in that sprawling area, according to state news agency SANA. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)
Particularly in Eastern Ghouta, he said, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified after the adoption of the resolution on Feb. 24, and claimed many hundreds of civilian lives, some even reporting the toll at more than 1,000.
The resolution demands the enabling of "the safe, unimpeded and sustained" delivery of humanitarian aid and services.
"Despite some limited convoy deliveries, the provision of humanitarian aid and services has not been safe, unimpeded or sustained," said Guterres.
"The resolution calls for all parties to lift the sieges in populated areas including in Eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Foah and Kafraya. No sieges have been lifted."
A Syrian soldier stands guard behind his machine gun in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside on March 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)
On the resolution's demand for medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded, Guterrest said: "To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated."
Guterres reported "egregious violations, indiscriminate attacks, and a failure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure" despite the resolution's demands for all parties to comply with their obligations under international law and international human rights law.
United Nations Security Council holds a meeting on the situation in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, March 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
"I am here to report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2401... But I am keenly aware that I am doing so just as the bloodletting in Syria enters its eighth year," said the secretary-general.
In 2017, more children were killed in Syria than during any other year since the war began, he noted.
"I am deeply saddened by the immense loss and cascading suffering of the Syrian people. And I am deeply disappointed by all those who have, year after year, by action or inaction, by design or indifference, allowed this to happen."