On February 23, the United Nation (UN) Security Council delayed a vote on a draft resolution to impose a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, which had been proposed by Kuwait and Sweden.
An unnamed Syrian diplomat revealed to the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV that the vote had been delayed because UN member states had failed to agree on some complicated issues related to the ceasefire.
The diplomat said that the vote will either be delayed until sides agree upon all the issues or the Western powers may go forward and present the Kuwaiti-Swedish resolution as it is. In this case, Russia will use its veto right to stop the draft resolution, according to the Syrian diplomat.
Meanwhile, Kuwait’s Ambassador to the UN, Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi said that there is a disagreement between the international powers regarding the the length of the ceasefire and added that the vote was delayed to 17:00 GMT of February 24, according to Reuters.
Sweden’s U.N. ambassador Olof Skoog told reporters: “We’re not going to give up … I hope that we will adopt something forceful, meaningful, impactful tomorrow.”
According to the Kuwaiti-Swedish resolution, a 30-days ceasefire should be imposed all areas across Syria to allow aid access and medical evacuations.
Syrian pro-government activists viewed the resolution as an attempt to hinder the upcoming military operation of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the East Ghouta pocket. Some activists even said that the US may abuse the ceasefire to pass more weapons and supplies to the militants in East Ghouta.
Several similar ceasefire agreements were imposed during the battle of Aleppo city in 2016. However, all of them failed as the militants there continued to attack the SAA-held areas and to forbid civilians from leaving their areas by force.