Transcript of Press encounter by Jan Egeland, Special Advisor to the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, following the Task Force meeting on Humanitarian Access in Syria

JE: Thank you very much, we just finished a meeting with the ISSG task force on humanitarian access to Syria, we reviewed and compared progress this year compared to last year. 2015 did, in the first three months give us access to only one besieged area that was Yarmouk at the time. All the other besieged areas there was zero contact with or access to, and the year 2015 ended up by children starving to death in Madaya and them being close to starvation in a number of besieged areas.

So compared to that, it is definitely a progress that we have now reached eleven of the eighteen areas with humanitarian supplies. Places like Madaya and Moadamya have gotten multiple convoys. It is also progress that we did get last week, three new places green lights to go, including Arbeen, Zamalka and Zabadin. All together 150,000 people in the eleven besieged areas have been reached, with also a green light to start the airdrops as progress is being made. We are now certain that we will be able to do airdrops in Deir Ez Zor on a regular basis within probably a fortnight. Then we will be able to reach a clear majority in that besieged areas.

However I will not hide that we are afraid now to lose some of the momentum that we got after the Munich meeting and there are several reasons to that. We still haven’t gotten access or greenlight at all to Douma, Darayya and East Harasta, three areas. Douma, a big place, more than 90,000 people in need. Darayya a place where conditions are horrendous for a relatively few civilians who are still there.

Then we meet a number of administrative problems, security issues and continuing to service some of the areas where we have gotten access to. Convoys to Kafr Batn, Madaya, Moadamya have been delayed. We have issues now regarding the number of beneficiaries, people in need. UN have much higher number than the government approve for the three new areas: Arbeen, Zamalka and Zabadin that I mentioned. And perhaps, most importantly, we are still not where we should be according to international law on medical services and health services for the besieged areas. Surgical equipment is still taken off convoys, medical personal is still not allowed into the besieged areas, and medical evacuation are still not allowed. Within the last seventy five hours, three children bled to death in Madaya. They were playing with an unexploded bomb, they were gravely wounded but they didn’t die. They died because of medical evacuation was not allowed and possible to organize. That happened over the last days, and it shouldn’t have taken place, those children should be alive today.

Now what we all agree is that the next ten days are crucial because April is supposed to be the first month under a new procedure which allows us to get clearance and green light within seven working days. On the request given during the month, we did that and the seven working days are now over. The possibility to go should come within another three days. So nothing should hinder us in taking a big lip in the next week/ next ten days so that we can regain momentum in terms of humanitarian access in Syria.

Q: Last time we met, you spoke of fifteen out of eighteen besieged areas excluding Deir-Ez Zor, Douma and Madaya. Today you have spoken of a green light for three new areas. I assume that those are hard to reach areas?

JE: I spoke only of besieged areas. Three no green light to, fifteen greenlight to go, three of them over the last week actually came the day I held my press conference and we got confirmation later that day.

Given the continuous frustration that you face, could you give us an overall assessment of how the dialogue with the regime has changed? There was progress and encouraging signs, now it seems that they are taking a step backwards. Since the ceasefire has come into force and the taskforce has gained momentum, what types of different message have you been getting from Damascus?

JE: It’s like there is less answers, less quick answers, less momentum, less dynamics in the situation than we had immediately after thel meeting in Munich. Actually many of the things that we have done since Munich is to implement the permit that we got within the first few days. We have really only gotten these three places that I mentioned one week ago, that has now been confirmed, Arbeen, Zamalka and Zabadin. We are still discussing the number of beneficiaries there for example. It is basically a bit frustrating now and my clear message was that all of the countries that have influence, not only Russia , have to help us. We have to be very crystal clear with the government but also with armed opposition group that it cannot continue like now. We must continue to get to the remain besieged areas and we cannot allow medical services to be exempted.

Q: Regarding the seven days and the three areas, could you specify so we can get it clear, and again you said the last meeting that at the end of the month we are going to get double assistance than we got before, are you confident that it will happen, regarding the situation right now?

JE: The new procedure which was negotiated by the government with the help of members of task force was to overcome the odd situation where you sent a request and you could get an answer back in a week or in a year Under the new procedure you are supposed to get a considered answer back within seven days. Largely that has happened, it is just that the answer has been unsatisfactory when we got a no to go to Douma, Darayya and East Harasta. What has not yet worked is the three days clearance to go as we have gotten delays also in a number of places, Madaya, Moadamya and Kafr Batn convoys and so on.

The argument is usually given as security. Our fear is that security has gone better because the cessation of hostilities is now holding. Some of the old legal agreement, you know the four town agreement. That agreement is for example, in more trouble now than it was in January, some of the proceeding local agreement are in bigger troubles, and here we both have government and opposition to negotiate with. Am I hopeful that I will be able to do the big plan of the nearly one million new people? Yes we can still do it, I am still hopeful but then we need to make more progress than we did over the last week which was not a good week for us in Syria.

Q: When will be the next meeting of your group and what will be the questions on your agenda?

JE: Next meeting will be in a week, Thursday. We still keep up weekly meeting to regain momentum and we will, in a week, discuss precisely if is April giving us the progress that it was supposed to give. Have we gotten to go to all of these place where convoys have had problems to go to? What about the local agreements that are now in trouble? Have all of the members done their homework, which is either to be more proactive with the government and it is very clear that we do expect Russia, Iran, China, Iraq to be active in Damascus with the government but also the European who have contact with it. We do expect that armed opposition groups that are making problems, still for some aspects of humanitarian work, will not do so because they will be told so by their international sponsors.

Q: Is it the sixth or seventh meeting of the Task Force? What kind of problem is the opposition making, could you specify?

JE: It is largely connected to issues of who goes into an armed opposition held areas. Does UN have access to its own people or is it the local relief committee or the local SARC. Is the SARC able to stay in a place? What about when there is negotiation for example in the four town agreement? Usually one side doesn’t’ allow something to go into the other side areas, they act similarly on their side. It is very clear that it is asymmetrical in the sense of that out of the eighteen besieged areas, and you take away Deir Ez Zor with a 200,000 people encircled by IS, it is besieged by armed opposition groups in Kafr Batn and all of the others by government forces and Hezbollah, their ally. So it is one sided, it is really more with the government we have to deal.
I think it is the 7th meeting because we had one the day after Munich, so it’s now six weeks, seven meetings.

And it is interesting, I would say that diplomats in the groups are very frustrated because they really expected momentum to be held at a pace we had earlier on, and many of the humanitarian who have lived through five years of disappointment are delighted with what has happened this year. It is also a little bit the expectation you’ve had and experiences you’ve had. Humanitarians have been very alone for years, there has not been that much help from member states or diplomats. This year it changed and we welcome that. Thank you.