United Nations, Dec 18: The UN Security Council on Sunday will vote on a French draft resolution to monitor the evacuation process of civilians and rebel fighters from the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Diplomatic sources said that the vote was scheduled for 10 a.m. in New York, Efe news reported.
The initiative required UN staff to coordinate and observe the departure of inhabitants of eastern Aleppo.
Thousands were evacuated from the former opposition stronghold, recaptured almost in its entirety by pro-government forces.
The process, however, was stopped on Friday and people were now waiting for the resumption of the agreement between the parties.
Western countries have denounced the alleged abuses against some of the evacuees and considered it fundamental to have international observers present during the process.
Russia has expressed skepticism about the possibility of the UN monitoring the evacuations and said that deploying observers would take weeks.
French authorities, however, believe that the mission could be carried out with UN personnel already in the area.
Both France and the US warned Moscow that if it blocks the adoption of the resolution, they would convene a special session of the UN General Assembly to put pressure on Damascus and its allies.
So far in the conflict in Syria, the Russian delegation has used its veto power six times to paralyze initiatives on war in the Security Council.
Despair grows among civilians trapped in Aleppo
Aleppo: Desperation mounted today among thousands of hunger-stricken Syrian civilians trapped in the rebel enclave in Aleppo after their evacuation was delayed by a disagreement over the fate of other besieged areas.
As international alarm grew over the plight of residents including women, children, the sick and wounded, the UN Security Council was to vote on whether to send observers to the battleground city.
An AFP correspondent who visited a hospital in the rebel sector saw appalling conditions with patients lying on the floor without food or water and almost no heating despite sub-zero temperatures at night.
Thousands of civilians and rebels had begun leaving Aleppo on Thursday under an evacuation deal allowing Syria’s regime to take full control of the divided city after years of fighting.
But the operation was suspended the next day with both sides blaming each other.
The main obstacle to a resumption is a rift over the number of people to be evacuated in parallel from two Shiite villages, Fuaa and Kafraya, under rebel siege in northwestern Syria.
Under an agreement reached between Turkey, which backs the rebels, and regime allies Russia and Iran, those evacuations would take place at the same time as the Aleppo operation.
But differences remain over the number of people to leave the villages -- the rebels have agreed to 1,500 while Shiite Iran wants 4,000 people to be allowed out.
Al-Farook Abu Bakr, of the hardline Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, said a deal had been reached for the evacuations to resume and it was possible that they would happen today.
The UN Security Council was set to meet at 1600 GMT in New York to vote on French proposals to dispatch monitors to oversee evacuations and report on the protection of civilians.
The draft text said the council was “alarmed” by the worsening humanitarian crisis in Aleppo and by the fact that “tens of thousands of besieged Aleppo inhabitants” are in need of aid and evacuation.
“Our goal through this resolution is to avoid another Srebrenica in this phase immediately following the military operations,” French Ambassador Francois Delattre told AFP, referring to a 1995 Bosnian war massacre.
But the proposals face resistance from veto-wielding Russia, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Families have been sheltering during the night in freezing temperatures in bombed out apartment blocks in Aleppo’s Al-Amiriyah district, the departure point for evacuations before they were halted.
