Men inspect damage after an airstrike on Aleppo's rebel held al-Hallak neighbourhood in Syria on June 2, 2016. (Reuters photo)
The United Nations will ask the Syrian government on Sunday to approve air drops and air lifts of humanitarian aid to besieged areas, UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council, according to diplomats in the closed door meeting on Friday.
Nearly 600,000 people are besieged in 19 different areas in Syria, according to the UN, with two thirds trapped by government forces and the rest besieged by armed opposition groups and ISIS terrorists.
O'Brien told the council the UN would ask permission from Syria to air drop or air lift aid into besieged areas where only partial or no land access has been granted by President Bashar al-Assad's government, said the diplomats.
Syria gave the UN and the Red Cross approval on Thursday to send humanitarian aid convoys into at least 11 of the 19 besieged areas during June after the United States and Britain called for air drops.
Last month members of the International Syria Support Group, which includes Russia and the United States, agreed that the UN World Food Program should air drop aid to Syria's besieged communities from June 1 if land access was denied.
UN Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura, who also briefed the 15-member council, backed O'Brien's comments, saying the UN needed to pursue air drops and air lifts of humanitarian relief, the council diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
At least 250,000 people have died in Syria's five-year civil war in Syria, while more than 6.6 million have been internally displaced and another 4.8 million people have fled the country.
© Thomson Reuters 2016