Air strikes against hospitals in Syria are war crimes that make the resumption of peace talks in the country’s civil war impossible, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said yesterday, criticising Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia.
“It is the continuing savagery of the Assad regime against the people of Aleppo and the complicity of the Russians in committing what are patently war crimes - bombing hospitals, when they know they are hospitals and nothing but hospitals that is making it impossible for peace negotiations to resume,” he told the Conservative Party’s annual conference.
The Syrian military, supported by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air power, began a push to take the whole of the divided city of Aleppo after a ceasefire collapsed last month. The assault has nearly destroyed eastern Aleppo’s healthcare system, the UN said.
The European Union yesterday proposed a new humanitarian plan in co-ordination with the United Nations for the besieged half of Aleppo, but said it required co-operation from all parties to the conflict.
 The plan aims to deliver medical, water and food aid from EU stocks in government-held western Aleppo to up to 130,000 people in insurgent-controlled eastern Aleppo, and to evacuate urgent medical cases from the area.
 East Aleppo was cut off in early July when Syrian regime and allied forces took control of the main supply route in.
 Subsequent attempts by Russia and the United States - which support opposing sides in the conflict - to implement successful ceasefires and get guarantees from all parties to ensure the safety of convoy staff have failed.
 “The EU calls on all parties to urgently provide the necessary authorisations for aid delivery and for medical evacuations to proceed. It intends to work intensively in the next hours and days with the parties concerned to make this happen,” said a statement from EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management Christos Stylianides.
 The EU said the operation must be neutral and carried out “under the sole responsibility of humanitarian organisations”.
 A significant difficulty in previous attempts to deliver United Nations aid to east Aleppo and other areas was trying to ensure that Syrian government forces did not interfere.
 The UN has previously criticised the Syrian government for restricting the content of aid deliveries, blocking access to areas of high need and removing items from some consignments.
 In September an aid convoy west of Aleppo was hit and destroyed, killing around 20 people.
 The EU is also asking for medical evacuations to be allowed not only for eastern Aleppo, but for all areas under siege, including the rebel-besieged towns of Foua and Kefraya in Idlib and government-blockaded Madaya and Zabadani near the Lebanese border.
 The EU statement also said it was mobilising a 25mn  euro ($28mn) emergency aid package for its humanitarian partners in Aleppo and other priority areas of Syria.