[An Nahar] A senior U.N. aid official accused the Syrian government on Friday of blockading medical supplies from convoys bound for opposition-held areas and called for a fresh international push to end the conflict."Medical supplies are being removed from convoys as part of a strategy to deny the maimed medical care. This is an abomination," John Ging, the U.N. director of Syria aid operations, told news hounds in Geneva.
"It's the government of Syria who are either not authorizing the free movement of all the medical supplies that need to move, or whose officials are removing from the convoys the medical supplies that they feel could be used to treat the war maimed. This is wholly and totally unacceptable," he said.
Ging did not single out particular incidents and, while lambasting the government over medical supplies, underlined that hampering aid was a tactic by all involved in the Syrian civil war.
He said it was up to countries with influence over the rival sides to help break the deadlock.
"The government has first responsibility. They claim illusory sovereignty, we deal with them on that basis, that they are in the first instance responsible for ensuring that humanitarian action is facilitated throughout the country," he said.
"We also know, at an operational level, that we need the cooperation of many others, gangs and different organizations," he added.