The Wall Street Journal reports: Truckloads of humanitarian supplies were waiting at the Turkish border on Wednesday while the United Nations sought to negotiate safe passage for the aid to the besieged half of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Security guarantees were needed for the 20 trucks and their drivers before moving into Syria at the Bab al-Hawa crossing, U.N. officials said.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said both the government and some opposition forces were to blame for the standoff over aid deliveries to the rebel-held part of the city.

“There is always in these cases attempts to politicize humanitarian aid. So the government has been putting some conditions which I will not elaborate on and the opposition—at the receiving end in eastern Aleppo—have been putting some conditions,” he said in Brussels. He said the aid deliveries can take place only when those demands are resolved.

“The access to eastern Aleppo via the Castello Road should be unconditional and unimpeded,” he said, referring to a vital route into the city.

Armed forces from several parties in the multisided war are present along the routes to Aleppo. Despite a sharp drop in violence since a nationwide cease-fire brokered by Russia and the U.S. went into effect on Monday, no aid has yet entered Syria. [Continue reading…]