People of besieged Madaya waiting for aid convoys- AFP

Madaya, Syria- People of Madaya welcomed human relief convoys that had started arriving at the town after a six-month blockade by both Assad’s regime and Hezbollah. Madaya is a mountainous modest town located in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, in the southwestern part of the country. Temporary relief vehicles arrived after the death of an approximate 30 hunger-stricken victims of town’s citizens.

In view of relief arriving at Madaya, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that 44 convoys loaded with medical and nutritional support had arrived there. The Red Cross also reported another similar 21 human relief convoys arriving at the two besieged towns of Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya located in the Idlib Governorate over 300 km away from the Capital city which have been held captive by Syrian Opposition factions since summer 2015.

Moreover, Mohammed Yehya Maktabi, Syrian National Coalition member, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the arrival of human relief to Madaya resembles “revival from death” to its sieged domiciles. He also stressed the necessity of urgently lifting the blockade completely off of Madaya and other barricaded towns.

“Regime forces have purposely delayed relief arriving at Madaya, they were rummaging each convoy at each checkpoint on its trip from Damascus to the Rif Governorate”, Maktabi added.

Moreover, “Hezbollah, before the convoy’s arrival, bargained with women and children to offer them aid, in exchange of them up going on Hezbollah affiliated television and declaring that : the militants are the ones barricading the town and stealing our aid”, said Maktabi .

On world politics arena, Riyad Hijab, elected General Coordinator for the Syrian opposition’s Higher Negotiations Committee, has taken the opportunity of his visit to Paris to stress on the importance of separating humanitarian aid from the political file, so that it is not used as a bargaining chip against the Syrian Opposition’s negotiator.