WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian towns will likely proceed on schedule, under the agreement reached on Thursday by the International Syrian Support Group (ISSG), but it should be extended to Aleppo, CEO and founder of Caerus Associates David Kilcullen told Sputnik.
"Allowing humanitarian assistance to flow through to those towns that were named in the communique, I think that is quite likely to happen and soon, and that is a good thing," Kilcullen said on Friday.
He added, "I would like to see that [assistance] extend to Aleppo."
Kilcullen, a counterinsurgency expert whose firm specializes in helping communities living in conflict areas, noted that the city of Aleppo was notably left out of the ISSG communique.
"Aleppo is surrounded, and there are a lot of humanitarian issues there," he noted.
Aleppo has been under siege from radical Islamist militants, including the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, and the al-Nusra Front. The ISSG communique specifically omits calls to end hostilities against these terrorist groups.
Following the Thursday meeting of the ISSG, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained that the western suburbs of Aleppo continue to be under the control of terror groups like the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front. As a result, Russia is continuing its airstrikes against the terrorists.
