كم هم سخفاء وكاذبون أولئك «الممانعون والمقاومون» المزعومون الذين صدعوا رؤوسنا منذ بداية الثورة السورية وهم يتحدثون عن أن المتآمرين على سوريا يريدون أن ينقلوها من محور المقاومة إلى محور التبعية لأمريكا وإسرائيل. وبناء على ذلك راحوا يصورون الصراع في سوريا على أنه بين أمريكا وأتباعها من جهة، وروسيا وما يسمى «حلف الممانعة» من جهة أخرى. ألم يصبح هذا الكلام ضرباً من الهراء بعد أن بات الروس والإسرائيليون ينسقون عملياتهم في سوريا من غرفة عمليات واحدة، حتى بالتعاون مع النظام وحلفائه «الممانعين».
لا أدري لماذا يصر القومجيون والناصرجيون والمقاومجيون العرب وبقايا اليسار الهزيل على تصوير الصراع في سوريا على أنه صراع بين الشرق والغرب، كما لو أننا في ستينات القرن الماضي حيث كانت الحرب الباردة بين الاتحاد السوفياتي وأمريكا في أوجها. صحيح أن الرئيس الروسي يحاول استعادة أمجاد الاتحاد السوفياتي البائدة بعقلية وأيديولوجية ومعطيات جديدة، لكنه ليس أبداً في وارد التصادم مع أمريكا في الشرق الأوسط. ولا نصدق أيضاً أن الروس يملؤون الفراغ الذي بدأت تتركه أمريكا في المنطقة، كما لو أن الأمريكيين انهزموا أمام الزحف الروسي.
لا علاقة للتدخل الروسي السافر في سوريا أبداً بضعف الجبروت الأمريكي، ولا بصعود الجبروت الروسي، بل الأمر برمته مرتبط بمصالح إسرائيل في سوريا خصوصاً والمنطقة عموماً، وطبعاً بمصالح أمريكا وروسيا المشتركة. فلا يمكن لروسيا مثلاً أن تدخل الساحة المصرية بهذه القوة لولا المباركة الإسرائيلية وبالتالي الأمريكية، فمصر مازالت في الجيب الأمريكي سياسياً وعسكرياً، ومازالت تعتاش في جزء من ميزانيتها العسكرية على المعونة الأمريكية. ولو كان النفوذ الروسي سيؤثر على النفوذ الأمريكي في مصر لما تجرأ بوتين أن يلقي السلام على المصريين. لاحظوا أيضاً كيف أن الأردن بات ينسق مع روسيا أكثر مما ينسق مع أمريكا. هل كان ليجرؤ على ذلك لولا الضوء الأخضر الإسرائيلي والأمريكي؟ ولو عدنا إلى الساحة السورية، لرأينا التدخل الروسي قد حدث بعد مداولات إسرائيلية روسية على أعلى المستويات السياسية والعسكرية والاستخباراتية. لقد التقى بوتين ونتنياهو مرتين خلال أسبوعين قبل التدخل الروسي. وقد اعترف وزير الخارجية الإسرائيلي الأسبق جوزيف ليبرمان بأن التنسيق الروسي الإسرائيلي في سوريا يجري على مدار الساعة سبعة أيام في الأسبوع. حتى الأطفال الصغار يعلمون أن من يحدد السياسة الأمريكية في الشرق الأوسط عموماً هي إسرائيل وليس وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية. وإذا كانت تل أبيب هي من ترسم السياسة الخارجية الأمريكية في المنطقة، فمن الطبيعي أن تكون أمريكا راضية تماماً عن التدخل الروسي في سوريا عندما يكون بمباركة وبضوء أخضر إسرائيلي.
إذاً من العيب أن نسمع بعض السوريين واللبنانيين والإيرانيين المؤيدين للنظام السوري وهم يتفاخرون بالدور الروسي في سوريا كما لو كان في مواجهة الدور الإسرائيلي أو الأمريكي. ما أسخفهم عندما يقولون إن روسيا جاءت لتطهير سوريا من الإرهابيين المدعومين أمريكياً وإعادة الاستقرار إليها، كما لو كانت روسيا جمعية خيرية لمساعدة المحتاجين. ليس هناك ما يثبت أن روسيا تصارع الأمريكيين في سوريا. وفي أحسن الأحوال ربما تكون عملية تقاسم مصالح بين الروس والأمريكيين، إن لم نقل إن الروس يسمسرون للأمريكان في سوريا، كما فعلوا من قبل عندما ضغطوا على القيادة السورية لتسليم سلاحها الكيماوي الاستراتيجي نزولاً عند رغبة إسرائيل وأمريكا. من يجرد سوريا من سلاحها الاستراتيجي لصالح إسرائيل لا شك أنه أقرب لإسرائيل منه إلى النظام السوري. وعلى المطبلين والمزمرين للتدخل الروسي في سوريا أن يتذكروا «اتفاق كيري-لافروف» الذي وصفه البعض وقتها بأنه بمثابة «سايكس-بيكو» جديد وربما أخطر، على صعيد تقاسم النفوذ والثروات وتمزيق المنطقة بين الأمريكيين والروس. وقد اعترف السيناتور الأمريكي الشهير ليندسي غرايام في استجوابه الشهير لوزير الدفاع الأمريكي قبل فترة بأن أمريكا باعت سوريا برضاها لروسيا وإيران ضمن لعبة تبادل المصالح. إذاً: مهما تبجح جماعة الممانعة والمقاومة بعلاقتهم وتحالفهم الاستراتيجي مع روسيا، فمن المعروف أن التحالف الروسي الإسرائيلي يبقى أقوى بعشرات المرات لأسباب كثيرة. فلا ننسى أن اليهود الروس الذين يزيد عددهم على المليون في إسرائيل هم من يحرك السياسة الإسرائيلية، وهم على ارتباط وثيق بروسيا. وكلنا يتذكر صورة الرئيس الروسي بوتين وهو يرتدي القلنسوة اليهودية وهو يزور موقع حفريات «الهيكل» تحت المسجد الأقصى، ويبارك الحفريات التي ستهدم ثالث الحرمين الشريفين في يوم من الأيام. دعونا نوّصف الأمر بلغة الناس البسطاء لمن يرفض التوصيف آنف الذكر. روسيا، كما تبين الإحصائيات الدولية، ليست أقوى من أمريكا، وهي، في مقاييس القوى الدولية، مجرد دولة إقليمية وليست عظمى حسب ناتجها المحلي الذي لا يصل إلى ناتج أضعف الدول الأوربية، ناهيك عن أنها مازالت تعتمد إلى حد كبير على تصدير النفط والغاز. صحيح أن لديها قوة عسكرية وترسانة هائلة، لكن هذا لا يؤهلها وحده لتكون منافساً خطيراً لأمريكا. وبالتالي فإن ما تفعله روسيا في سوريا وغيرها لا بد أن يكون برضى أمريكا الأقوى منها. وعندما لا يرضى الكبير عن الصغير يستطيع أن يوقفه بصفعة بسيطة، أو بفركة أذن. ولو لم تكن أفعال روسيا في سوريا تروق للكبير الأمريكي، لما تجرأت روسيا أصلاً أن ترسل طائرة ورق إلى سوريا. إن كل من يتحدث عن صراع روسي أمريكي على سوريا، كما كان الأمر أيام الحرب الباردة، فهو يهرف بما لا يعرف. ولو أرادت أمريكا أن تعرقل التدخل الروسي في سوريا لأعطت المعارضين السوريين خمسة صواريخ مضادة للطائرات فقط لإسقاط الطائرات الروسية في الأجواء السورية، فذهبت هيبة روسيا أدراج الرياح، وتحولت بين ليلة وضحاها إلى مهزلة دولية. صحيح أن وثيقة الأمن القومي الروسي الأخيرة تصف أمريكا وحلف الناتو بأنهما أكبر خطر على روسيا، لكن عندما يتعلق الأمر بسوريا، فإن الروس والإسرائيليين والأمريكان على قلب رجل واحد.
إطلاق سراح الوزير اللبناني السابق، ميشال سماحة، والمتهم بالتحضير لجرائم إرهابية، ليس اعتباطياً، أو عملاً خارج السياق العام للأحداث في المحيطين، الإقليمي والدولي، وتحولاتهما.
ليس سماحة مجرد متهم عادي، بل ضلع أساسي في محور إقليمي، يجري تلميعه دولياً وتبرئة أطرافه من الأفعال الشنيعة التي قامت وتقوم بها. سماحة مجرد حلقة في مسلسل الجرائم الكبيرة الممتدة من سورية إلى اليمن، مروراً بالعراق
. جرائم لها المنفذون والمخططون والمتعاونون أنفسهم، وليس هذا المسؤول اللبناني السابق إلا عنصراً صغيراً في المنظومة،
لكنه يحمل أسراراً كبيرة، قد تورّط أسماءً لا يرغب الغرب عموماً، والولايات المتحدة خصوصاً، في توريطها في هذه المرحلة
من عمر التسويات العامة. أين تأتي جرائم سماحة بالقياس إلى ما يرتكبه بشار الأسد والمليشيات المتحالفة معه في سورية. هي نقطة في بحر، ولا سيما أن سماحة ضبط قبل تنفيذ المخططات التي أنيطت له. مع ذلك، ها هو الأسد يقترب من أن يصبح شريكاً للغرب في محاربة داعش، وترسم السيناريوهات إلى إبقائه في الحكم إلى ما قدّر الله، بغض النظر عن الدماء التي سفكها، أو الأبرياء الذين هجّرهم من بيوتهم، أو اعتقلهم في سجونه. كل هؤلاء غير مدرجين في الحسابات الغربية الجديدة التي باتت شبه متشاركة مع الأسد في رؤيته لمعارضيه الداخليين والخارجيين. ما هي انتهاكات سماحة نسبة إلى ما ترتكبه المليشيات المدعومة إيرانياً في اليمن والعراق، وحتى سورية.
صحيح أنه كان في صدد تأجيج فتنة مذهبية سنية شيعية، بناء على أوامر سورية، ولا شك إيرانية، غير أنه أخفق في مسعاه، وسقط في فخ أحد عملاء الأمن؛ "غلطة الشاطر". لكن، ما أخفق به سماحة يقوم به آخرون، ضالعون في المحور نفسه، بكل نجاعة، وبدون أن يرف لهم جفن، خوفاً من أي ملاحقة قضائية، على عكس سماحة الذي قضى ثلاث سنوات "مظلوماً" خلف القضبان.
من حاسب مليشيات حزب الله على حصارها وتجويعها مضايا؟
ومن ساءل الحوثيين عن حصارهم تعز؟
ومن طلب تبريرات من الحشد الشعبي على عمليات التطهير العرقي في ديالى وغيرها؟ إطلاقاً لا أحد، بل على العكس، ها هي الدولة الراعية لكل هؤلاء تستعد للدخول في مرحلة جديدة من الانفتاح على العالم، مع رفع العقوبات في إطار اتفاق تفكيك برنامجها النووي. اتفاق ترفع فيه القبعة لإيران على القدرة السياسية، والتكتيك الاستراتيجي الذي أوصلها إلى نتائج القنبلة، من دون الحصول عليها، على عكس دول أخرى تمتلك القنبلة، غير أنها لم تزد وضعها إلا تدهوراً، باكستان ربما المثال الأفضل.
لماذا تريد إيران القنبلة، بعدما اعترف الغرب، ضمناً وعلناً، بأحقيتها في بسط نفوذها في المنطقة، بغض النظر عن الوسائل.
وها هو يغض البصر عن التوغل الإيراني هنا وهناك
في إطار اتفاق شراكة، مكتوم ومعلوم، ملعبه الأراضي العربية
ويستثني إسرائيل. في المقابل، إيران على موعد مع الرخاء الاقتصادي الذي حرم منه الشعب طويلاً في ظل العقوبات ومغامرات توسيع الإمبراطورية. بالنسبة إلى إيران والغرب، تحقق الهدف الأساسي من الصراع الطويل، المباشر وغير المباشر، تحقق على أكمل وجه. أما الباقي فمجرد تفصيل هامشي في الموازين الدولية والإقليمية، لا حاجة للوقوف عنده، أو المحاسبة عليه، وفق منطق طي صفحة الخلاف وفتح عهد الشراكة. إنه زمن الإفلات من العقاب، وميشال سماحة هو ابن هذا الزمن، وهذا المحور، المعفوّ من المساءلة، وفق حسابات السياسات الدولية العامة
. غداً سيخرج علينا سماحة، عبر شاشات التلفزة الموالية لمحوره، لينظّر علينا بالممانعة والمقاومة ومحاربة الإرهاب والأخلاق والعفة، وهو فعلاً بدأ ذلك في يومه الأول خارج السجن. وسيجد كثيرين يهللون لتحليلاته العبقرية. ولا عزاء للضحايا المفترضين أو الواقعيين.
UK foreign secretary condemns tactics of Russian pilots, saying they are running return raids on targets to hit rescue workers The Guardian Link
Russia is breaching all the norms of war by deliberately targeting rescue workers, schools and hospitals in Syria, the UK foreign secretary has claimed, accusing the Russians of running return raids on targets inside Syria solely to hit civilian rescue workers.
Philip Hammond levelled his charges after meeting Syrian civil defence workers in Adana, southern Turkey. The rescue workers are being trained by the Turks to extract the injured and dying from the rubble of buildings struck by Syrian regime bombs or Russian raids.
In probably his toughest condemnation of Russian tactics since Vladimir Putinsurprised the west by intervening militarily in Syria at the end of September, Hammond said: “The Russians are deliberately attacking civilians, and the evidence points to them deliberately attacking schools and hospitals and deliberately targeting rescue workers.
“If you go back for a second strike you know what you are doing.”
The west has long argued Russia is not targeting Islamic State but instead opponents of the Assad regime, but this is the furthest Hammond has gone in condemning the tactics of Russian pilots.
He said he will be raising the issue directly with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in the next few days, adding that Russian military tactics were making it almost impossible to build the confidence necessary for peace talks due to start in Geneva on 25 January.
Hammond was told by the teams of civilian rescue workers in Adana that Russian bombing missions were distinct from those run by the Syrian air force since they attacked with multiple aircraft and always returned to targets 15 to 20 minutes after the initial bomb to hit the same target.
Hammond reported: “Rescue workers are no longer marking their vehicles because they believe they are being targeted deliberately. They also told me hospitals around Aleppo and Idlib have had Red Cross symbols removed because they are becoming a target for the Russians.”
Taken aback by what he was told by the group of rescue workers, trainees known as the white helmets, he continued: “We in Britain have been rightly challenged about Saudi Arabia in Yemen and why we maintain our confidence in the Saudis not breaching international law. But the much bigger story here is Russia. They are supposedly our ally sitting at the same table in the negotiations on Syria’s future, but they are targeting civilians – they should be held to account under international law.”
Hammond predicted he would get “nothing but flannel” from the Russians in response to his allegations, but said details of the attacks were being compiled, and warned if Moscow did not change its tactics it would be impossible to make any progress in peace talks in Geneva. Critical to those peace talks was a ceasefire and confidence-building measures, he said.
Hammond with members of the white helmets rescue mission. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
He said it was essential that “the Russians stop bombing civilian targets, stop using barrel bombs, stop using siege tactics and give humanitarian access to areas”.
Hammond acknowledged that crimes may have been committed by all sides in the four-year civil war, but added: “Russia is a state and it is a state that aspires to play a role as an international power sitting at the top table and it has to behave in accordance with international law.”
He said he understood why moderate Syrian forces were reluctant to to talk to Assad or Russia, but he said the moderates must engage. “The opposition would be making a mistake if it refused to engage and they have got to hear what the regime has to say,” he said
“The talks have to go ahead even if the omens are not good and it is unlikely there will be much progress. Even if they only meet for a few hours and agree to meet again in a fortnight that would be better, but there is a quite a wide gap between the agenda the opposition want to talk about and the agenda the government wants.”
Hammond again insisted Assad could not stay in power beyond six to nine months of the talks starting, adding that a ceasefire, a precondition of talks about a transitional government, could only be sold to opposition forces if it was clear Assad would go.
“If there is a clear date for his end, some of the opposition forces at least will be prepared to engage with a ceasefire ahead of his departure.”
Hammond accepted some of the moderate forces likely to be present at the talks were Islamist, but the test was whether they were prepared to take part in a democratic contest.
“There are two kinds of Islamists; there are those that say this is the word of Allah and it cannot be debated and discussed, and there are those that say they have an Islamist future for the country. But we will argue our case and put it to the people – and if we don’t win, we will keep putting our case.”
THE WAR CRIMINAL OF MADAYA AND BEYOND....... WHERE IS THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT? THIS CRIMINAL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE CRIMES THAN SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC!
Reports of residents starving to death in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya near Damascus have shocked the world over the past week. On Monday, residents finally received long-awaited humanitarian aid for just the second time since government forces and their Hezbollah allies imposed a siege on the town in July 2015.
One aid basket containing food and other essential supplies was delivered to each family and is meant to last them for a month. What will happen when families run out of food again?
"Aid is only a small part of the solution," Louay, a resident of Madaya, told me.
I interviewed Louay last week before the Syrian government allowed aid to enter the town. He told me that he last ate a proper meal more than a month and a half ago. He has been surviving mainly on water and leaves. Now, he says, he is relieved that his family has some food for the next month, but as long as the siege continues, there are no guarantees that aid will be regularly allowed in again.
"We did not cook a proper meal when we received the food basket," he said. "I am afraid that once we run out of food we are back to eating leaves."
I am afraid that once we run out of food we are back to eating leaves
Around 40,000 people in Madaya have been struggling to survive under siege for the past six months. Residents told me horrific stories of the daily hardship they endure. They described people living in Madaya as "walking skeletons."
It took an international outcry for the Syrian government to finally allow U.N. humanitarian agencies and their partners to bring in aid. Once again, the world witnessed the Syrian government's brutality in depriving people of basic food and other lifesaving supplies.
Left to die under siege, an Amnesty International report published in August last year, documents the use of starvation as a method of warfare in Eastern Ghouta, where at least 160,000 civilians have also been under a Syrian government siege since 2013, just 32 kilometers from Madaya.
In 2014, Amnesty International highlighted the plight of nearly 200 civilians who had died from starvation and lack of medical care as a result of a siege on Yarmouk, just south of Damascus. The town of Daraya near Damascus has also been under continuous siege and relentless bombardment by government forces since 2012.
Several Eastern Ghouta residents told me that they had had limited access to food, fuel, water and electricity since 2013. They have been forced to rely on aid from local organizations. The siege has created a war economy whereby suppliers and non-state armed groups sell food and lifesaving necessities at inflated prices.
Mustafa, whose name has been changed for security purposes, and his family were smuggled out of Eastern Ghouta in October 2015 after paying thousands of dollars. I recently met Mustafa and his wife in Turkey.
"I am not happy that I left my home and my family," his wife told me. "But my son needed an operation. Hospitals do not have surgical supplies and the qualified doctors have left. The Syrian government will never allow us to leave so we did not have any option other than to use all the money we had left to pay smugglers."
Mustafa lost his brother, sister-in-law and niece in a missile attack on their home in August 2015. "We are trapped in a circle of death. You will either die from an airstrike or the lack of food," he said.
We are trapped in a circle of death. You will either die from an airstrike or the lack of food
Civilians living under siege in Madaya, Eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk and elsewhere in Syria are living in utter destitution. Their survival depends on the whim of the Syrian government and whether or not it chooses to give permission to allow humanitarian agencies to do their job.
The government has only occasionally allowed aid convoys to enter the besieged residential areas around Damascus despite repeated calls from international and local human rights groups about the desperate need for aid in these areas.
Thousands more civilians have been besieged in Deir al-Zour by the armed group calling itself the Islamic State and in other towns, including Foua and Kafraya, by armed opposition groups. On Sept. 20, 2015, an agreement to implement cease-firesin Madaya, Foua and Kafraya was reached between the Syrian government and non-state armed groups.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, both parties violated the provisions that would have contributed most to easing civilian suffering: humanitarian aid continued to be restricted and the injured were not allowed to leave. Civilians have been pawns in a deadly game between the warring parties. Louay and Mustafa feel lucky to have survived another day. For many others, their luck ran out before they were able to receive aid or escape.
Syrian civilians living in besieged areas have also lost faith that U.N. Security Council resolutions will do anything to alleviate their suffering. To them resolutions 2139 and 2165, which call for unfettered access to humanitarian aid and lifting of all sieges across Syria, have become merely ink on paper. All parties to the conflict have blatantly failed to comply with these demands.
Syrian civilians living in besieged areas have also lost faith that U.N. Security Council resolutions will do anything to alleviate their suffering. To them resolutions 2139 and 2165, which call for unfettered access to humanitarian aid and lifting of all sieges across Syria, have become merely ink on paper.
The media have played a pivotal role in highlighting the suffering in Madaya, but this attention must not fade away. Such attention is crucial to help ensure that further aid deliveries are allowed into Madaya, as well as all other besieged civilian areas, and that ultimately these sieges are lifted once and for all.
This article was first published by The Huffington Post's World Posthere
One day peace will come. And then the Assad regime and its allies must be held to account by the international community
‘A first convoy of United Nations aid finally arrived in the Syrian town of Madaya in January.’ Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft MediaEditorial Link
These were harrowing images, ones that bring to mind horrors seen during the second world war. Emaciated children, bones visible beneath their skin, their feeble voices begging for food. The skeletal body of a man who starved to death. The stories behind these images were no less heart-wrenching: families reduced to eating grass and leaves, parents eating nothing at all so their children might survive.
These were not scenes from a medieval history book, nor from a country stricken by natural disaster, but from today’s Syria, a country where the list of atrocities inflicted on civilians seems to have no end. The plight of Madaya – just an hour from Damascus – a town of 30,000 besieged since July last year, was suddenly brought to the world’s attention by Syrian activists and opposition networks who resorted to spreading photos and videos online. They did well: a first convoy of United Nations aid finally arrived earlier this week. A second one got through on Thursday. UN officials and international aid workers found at least 400 inhabitants in a critical state of undernourishment. According to Médecins Sans Frontières, at least 28 people, including six babies, had succumbed to famine.
The age-old strategy of siege is back.The Syrian regime, aided by Iranian-controlled foot soldiers, had chosen this method to retake charge of key routes connecting Damascus to the Lebanese border and coastal areas. It was a policy of starve-or-surrender, in a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. That this crime – which must now be thoroughly documented by the UN commission investigating atrocities in Syria – even happened is terrible. That it took so long for public opinion and international actors to become aware of it adds to the scandal. This was both a humanitarian blockade and a media blockade, typical of the Assad regime, where journalists are routinely kidnapped. Without the international outrage, it is hard to judge when a reluctant Syrian government would have lifted the siege of the rebel-held town.
But it would be short-sighted to see this as a definitive or even a sufficient outcome. Indeed, both the Assad regime and its Hezbollah allies have claimed to have had nothing to do with the starvation. Nor is it any less worrying that the siege stopped only after the UN negotiated a tit-for-tat agreement whereby aid would be allowed through to two northern areas, encircled by anti-Assad rebels.
Madaya is not an exception. The UN estimates that at least 15 other Syrian towns are currently besieged, with more than 400,000 people denied access to food and medicine. Almost two years after a UN resolution that supposedly forced warring parties to let aid through, the situation seems only to have worsened. The number of Syrians deemed “at risk” has doubled, says the UN. Saving Madaya should blind no one to the fact that atrocities against civilians are ongoing, even intensifying, and that the Assad regime and its allies are overwhelmingly to blame.
For now, the priority is to get aid through. But it is essential not to lose sight of the need ultimately to hold those responsible for these crimes to account. There is a terrible list of horror and brutality. And when, one day, peace finally comes, the perpetrators must not be forgotten.
Unicef reports cases of malnourishment in besieged Syrian town as UN chief Ban Ki-moon labels starvation tactics a war crime
Residents of the rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya await a Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Guardian Link
Cases of severe malnutrition have been confirmed among children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya, hours after the UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, described the use of starvation tactics in the civil conflict as a war crime.
“Let me be clear: the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime,” he told reporters at the UN. “I would say they are being held hostage, but it is even worse. Hostages get fed.”
On Friday, Unicef confirmed cases of severe malnutrition in the town, where residents had told the Guardian they were reduced to cooking grass uprooted from minefields in the area and tree leaves to survive.
Of 25 children under five screened by the organisation, 22 were suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition.
“Unicef is particularly saddened and shocked to have witnessed the death of Ali, a severely malnourished 16-year-old boy who passed away in the town’s clinic in front of our eyes,” the agency said in its statement.
An aid convoy bearing food, medicine and hygiene kits entered Madaya on Monday, while another convoy simultaneously entered Fua and Kefraya, two regime-held villages in northern Syria besieged by rebels. Another convoy carrying wheat flour and other supplies reached Madaya on Thursday in a joint mission by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN.
“The smell of bread, its taste, its shape, all these are things we had forgotten, and today we remembered them,” said Ebrahem Abbas, a resident in the town.
A security council meeting requested by the US, Britain and France is expected to be held on Friday to discuss the plight of 400,000 Syrians living under siege in the country.Starvation sieges have been used repeatedly by the government of Bashar al-Assad during the war, largely in an effort to win the acquiescence of areas in rebel hands that it considers of strategic importance, such as the countryside around the capital Damascus.
A government siege in the Syrian town of Moadamiyeh has starved an infant to death, with severe shortages of medical and food supplies threatening the rest of the town's residence.
A three-month-old baby has starved to death in the besieged Syrian town of Moadamiyeh, ten kilometres southwest of Damascus.
Around 45,000 civilians in the district are suffering from a crippling government siege and fears that starvation could creep in have finally come true.
Media reports and activists said that three-month-old Youssef Saadia died of malnutrition and lack of medical attention on Thursday.
It comes just one day after a disabled 15-year-old boy, Saeed Karbouj, also died from the same causes.
It brings the number of children who have died from starvation in the Western Ghouta town up to four.
Locals have said that government forces have blocked food coming into the Damascus' suburb - also known as Moadamiyet al-Sham - for three weeks.
No medicine and medical equipment have been allowed to enter since early last year.
"Children have died because of severe malnourishment and there are many other children in need of medical care, such as an eight-month-old called Mariam, who is suffering from malnutrition and dehydration," Abu Kanan al-Dimashqi, a member of the town's local council, toldThe New Arab.
"The vast majority of locals are living on one meal a day of bulgur and lentil soup with salt and spices because of the lack basic foodstuffs, such as flour and infant formula," Dimashqi said.
"Since mid-last March, [the siege] has intensified with only workers and students being let outside of the town and food shipments being limited to two kilogrammes at a time," he added.
Youssef Saadia died of malnutrition [Al-Ghouta Hospital]
Across Syria, the Assad regime has tightened its sieges over rebel-held towns, in an attempt to starve opposition-held areas into submission.
The situation has led to civilians being forced to eat grass and leaves to cope with the hunger.
The UN says it is struggling to deliver aid to about 4.5 million Syrians who live in hard-to-reach areas, including nearly 400,000 people in 15 besieged areas.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned the use of starvation as a weapon in the Syrian war is a war crime.
The warning comes after aid workers were able to make the second delivery of food to the famine-struck town ofMadaya - in the Damascus suburbs - where starvation has become rampant after a lengthy regime siege.
France, Britain and the US have requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting to demand the lifting of sieges in Syria to allow aid and food to reach civilians facing starvation.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have equipped nearly 200,000 young men with arms in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in order to face terrorism, General Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said.
In a speech during the memorial service of one of the Iranians killed in Syria, Jafari said: "The current developments in the region, the formation of Daesh and Takfiri groups, and the events that occurred in the past years are paving the ground for the emergence of Imam Mahdi, and you can now see the positive results in the readiness of nearly 200,000 young armed in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.”
He explained that "the Islamic revolution in Iran faced many threats and risks," adding that Iran has prepared thousands of fighters in and out of Iran to defend what he called "the axis of resistance".
A former Iranian ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday accused Tehran of promoting sectarianism and seeking to destabilize the Middle East through subverting governments and funding Shia militancy.
Mansour Farhang, who was the Islamic republic's first ambassador to the UN, said in an opinion letter published on The New York Times' website that Iranian officials' criticism of Saudi Arabia for sectarianism and human rights record is "a case of the pot calling the kettle black".
"Iran is a notorious violator of human rights and promoter of sectarianism. In 2015, nearly 700 at least were executed in Iran," Farhang wrote in response to a Jan. 10 op-ed penned by the country’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
"Mr. Zarif calls Saudi Arabia's execution method barbaric, but he serves a regime that orders lashing of teenage rape victims before executing them", Farhang said.
In his article published in the same newspaper, Zarif harshly criticized what he called "Saudi Arabia's reckless extremism" and "barbarism".
He said perpetrators of many terrorist acts from 9/11 attacks to San Bernardino shootings, as well as members of terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the Nusra Front, "have been either Saudi nationals or brainwashed by petrodollar-financed demagogues".
"The barbarism is clear. At home, state executioners sever heads with swords, as in the recent execution of 47 prisoners in one day, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr", wrote Zarif.
Friction between the regional rivals skyrocketed earlier this month when Saudi Arabia executed al-Nimr and 46 others, that led to protests in Iran and the storming of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Farhang, who says he left Iran as a dissident in 1981, said the Iranian and Saudi regimes are "corrupt and intolerant".
While Saudi Arabia "rules a country that wants to preserve the status quo in the Middle East", Iran's leaders "want to export their revolution to Arab countries and thus seek to destabilize the region through subversion and propaganda as well as military and economic assistance to Shiite militias in Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon," he alleged.
