Nusra using people as human shields in eastern Aleppo: Syria UN envoy

Al-Nusra is “using them as human shields and preventing them from getting out of the eastern part of Aleppo through the four humanitarian corridors opened by both the Russians and Syrian army,” Bashar al-Ja’afari told Russia Today in an exclusive interview on Friday.
 
On July 28, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria and Syrian government forces set up a number of humanitarian corridors in Aleppo in a bid to allow aid deliveries and safe exit for those willing to leave the divided city.
 
US ‘not serious’ in terror fight
 
Ja’afari said the UN is turning a blind eye to reports from its own staff members who witnessed hospitals in Aleppo becoming “occupied” by foreign-sponsored militants.
 
Ja’afari further said that the United States and its allies are “using al-Nusra Front as a shield to protect what they call the armed moderate groups in Syria.”
 
    “The American administration is not genuine and not serious about combating al-Nusra Front terrorists, which is a terrorist entity according to the [UN] Security Council list,” the Syrian UN envoy said.
 
He also said Washington has never had a solid plan to help resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria.
 
“The United States had never had a ‘Plan A’ to move to ‘Plan B,’ Washington had a ‘Plan B,’ they never worked out a ‘Plan A,’” Ja’afari said.
 
He said the West is one of the root causes of the Syrian conflict.
 
‘Ready for peace’
 
“We do not need to simplify things. The conflict in Syria has a rather geopolitical dimension. And this is what Moscow got from the beginning, this is what Beijing got from the beginning, this is what Tehran got from the beginning. The issue is much-much bigger,” Ja’afari said.
 
He stressed that the Damascus government is prepared to cooperate with related parties on the restoration of lasting peace in the country.
 
    “We are ready to go for a political settlement. We went to Geneva, we went to Moscow, we went everywhere for a political settlement. However, it should be a Syrian-Syrian settlement, it should be political, it should be without any foreign interference,” he said.
 
The Syrian conflict, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
 
Takfiri militants active in the conflict-ridden Arab country have been suffering major setbacks over the past few months amid operations by the Syrian army.