The spokesman for the European External Action Service (EEAS) called, on 29 December, for a reduction in tensions in the Northwest of Syria after “indiscriminate” airstrikes and shelling of civilians by the Syrian regime and its allies.
“All parties have the obligation to protect civilians. The regime and its allies must cease indiscriminate military attacks and respect international humanitarian law”, he urged in a statement. He also called for rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and protection for the three million civilians living in Idlib.
According to him, the latest offensive has already led to “countless civilian deaths, injuries and the displacement of 80,000 people”, bringing the number of displaced people since February 2019 to nearly 800,000.
Continued hostilities in Idlib risks destroying confidence in a negotiated political solution and in the work of the Constitutional Committee that has just begun, the spokesman said.
He also recalled that the fight against UN-listed terrorist groups in Idlib, as authorised by the United Nations, does not permit the undermining of international humanitarian law or the targeting of civilians. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)