Plans to airlift supplies to besieged towns in Syria have inched ahead amid concern from Russia and others about the safety of aid workers and uncertainty whether the Syrian government will approve, a UN official has said.
A proposed United Nations food convoy into the besieged rebel-held town of Daraya, the first to that suburb of the Syrian capital since 2012, has also been delayed, and will now not happen on Friday as previously planned.
The preparations were discussed at a humanitarian taskforce meeting of countries in the International Syria Support Group after a 1 June deadline passed for Syria's government to allow aid access or see air drops imposed from outside.
"Air drops ... remain an option if land deliveries do not go through," Ramzy E Ramzy, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria,said after the meeting.
"They are an option in the table and will be activated if ... the members of ISSG are not satisfied."
The United States and Britain have urged the UN to press ahead with air drops because Syria has not sufficiently opened up access to aid.
Syria's opposition has warned that the government may open the door just enough to defuse the international pressure before restricting access again.
A leading advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the country is working with the UN to deliver food and medical aid to all Syrian people isolated by the conflict.
Mr Ramzy has noted there were concerns for the safety of the crews of planes and helicopters who would deliver the aid.
"It is notjust the Russians who are concerned about security, it is an issue that has to be resolved."
Russia, Syria's most powerful ally, is widely seen as having responsibility for convincing Mr Assad to meet his humanitarian obligations.
The Syrian government let two convoys of aid into Daraya and Mouadamiya, another rebel-held suburb of Damascus, on Wednesday.
However, there was no food for the malnourished citizens of Daraya.
Jan Egeland, chairman of the UN humanitarian task force, said there were "clear indications" that a food convoy would go to Daraya within days, although not on Friday as planned.
"The Russians in the task force today said that it is the food component that the people are waiting most for in Daraya,"he said.
The UN wants to supply 11 besieged or hard-to-reach areas in the next few days and already has approval to deliver food aid to three other areas next week, he said.
