Children in Syrias Madaya await urgent medical help
Russia defends using Iran base for Syria air raids
AFP
AFP, BEIRUT: Eyes closed against the searing light, a 10-year-old with meningitis writhes in agony on a bed in Syrias besieged town of Madaya as his parents look helplessly on.
Yaman Ezzedin is one of several desperately ill children in the rebel-held town under regime siege outside Damascus in need of immediate evacuation to a well-equipped hospital.
And he is one of some 40,0000 residents who have been affected by food and medicine shortages inside Madaya since the regime encircled the town two years ago and besieged it completely last summer.
The town grabbed international attention in late 2015 after reports its residents were starving to death because of a lack of food. A 10-year-old Syrian girl shot in Madaya was evacuated on Sunday to a Damascus hospital after an online campaign, but another dozen children remain inside the town in urgent need of medical care.
This week, activists inside Madaya posted a video of Yaman on social media as part of a plea for help for the children.
He wont stop crying the pain is so unbearable, his father Alaa tells AFP by phone.
Cold compresses have done nothing to bring down his temperature, Alaa says, or alleviate convulsions, hallucinations and an intolerance of sunlight.
The young boy is so consumed by the pain, he no longer recognises us, his father says, his voice breaking.
I dont know who to ask... I call on the whole world, the United Nations, the Red Crescent to save my son.
Some 86 people have died in a year-long government siege of Madaya, including 65 from starvation and malnutrition, two NGOs said last month.
The Syrian American Medical Society and Physicians for Human Rights blamed the deaths on the governments stranglehold on the town.
The United Nations says nearly 600,000 Syrians are living under siege, mostly imposed by the government, though the tactic has also been used by rebel fighters and the Islamic State group.
Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday dismissed a suggestion from Washington that Moscow is violating a UN Security Council resolution by using an Iranian air base for its bombing raids on Syria.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Moscow could be in breach of a ban on supply or transfer of warplanes to Iran without prior approval of the United Nations Security Council.
There are no grounds to suspect Russia of breaching the resolution, Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow.
Russia on Tuesday began flying warplanes from an Iranian airbase in a major switch in its bombing campaign in Syria that the United States condemned as unfortunate.
Washington responded to Lavrovs latest statements on Wednesday, saying it is evaluating Russias actions.
Were looking at, were assessing it, were assessing whether this would constitute a violation, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
It does require a very detailed, legal analysis, he said, adding, but I stand by what I said yesterday, which is that fundamentally this isnt helpful.
Russian forces took off from the Iranian base to carry out a fresh round of strikes on Wednesday morning.
Russia has previously flown raids only out of its bases in Syria and Russia.
On Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russias use of the Iranian base could very well be a violation of a UN Security Council resolution that requires its prior approval for the supply, sale or transfer of warplanes to Iran.
But Lavrov insisted that in the case we are discussing now, there was neither the sale, nor supply, nor transfer of warplanes to Iran.
