As the Syria ceasefire deal comes into force, the United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on a Russian resolution endorsing the truce.

The resolution comes against a backdrop of deadlock among the veto-wielding members of the Security Council.

While Russia supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the US, UK and France have insisted that the President must step down as part of any deal to end the war.

The Russian resolution, however, called for rapid access for the delivery of humanitarian aid all over Syria.

BBC said the draft text also supported a political process to end the conflict, with talks between the government and opposition, brokered by Russia and Turkey said to be due in January in Kazakhstan.

The truce, which began barely 48 hours, has held in most places.

But there have been a number of clashes and air strikes while several groups including the Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front are excluded from the ceasefire deal. </s> The United Nations Security Council on Saturday rejected a Russian-drafted resolution urging a ceasefire in Aleppo after Moscow vetoed a rival measure calling for an end to the bombing of the Syrian city.

The measure was defeated by a vote of nine against, including Britain, France and the United States, four in favor and two abstentions in the 15-member council. </s> The UN Security Council has unanimously endorsed a ceasefire currently in effect in Syria, as well as plans for peace talks to be held in the Kazakh capital next month.

The resolution, approved late on Saturday, called for the "rapid, safe and unhindered" delivery of humanitarian aid throughout the country.

Russia, which supports Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, brokered the ceasefire with Turkey earlier this week in the hope of paving the way for peace talks in Kazakhstan in the new year.

The truce calls for negotiations over a political solution to end the conflict that has killed more than 400,000 people and forced millions to flee.

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Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN, praised efforts to end the year with an international agreement for Syria and thanked Turkey for its "substantive contribution".

"It is very important that the Security Council backed these efforts by Russia and Turkey," he said.

Endorsing the resolution "means that if all of us look together to certain objectives rather than to attempt to gain benefit, then we are able to make important decisions".

However, in remarks after the vote, several delegates voiced their concern, saying the agreement contained grey areas and that its implementation was fragile.

Amendments accepted

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York City, said Russia was forced to accept a number of amendments to see the resolution pass.

"Key among them was that the Russia-Turkey brokered ceasefire was part of a wider UN initiative aimed at restoring political dialogue," he said.

"Russia has made it clear that this resolution is in no way meant to supplant a UN push to start talks in Geneva."

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, has said he intends to bring together representatives of the rival parties for talks in Geneva after February 8.

The truce remained largely intact on Saturday, despite opposition forces accusing Assad loyalists of attacking 33 locations.

Rebel groups threatened to abandon the ceasefire if the government continued its assault on areas under their control.

Rebel leaders told Al Jazeera that Assad's government were trying to take advantage of the situation to further expand its territory.

At least 10 air strikes hit rebel-held villages and towns in the strategically important Wadi Barada valley near Damascus, activists said.

Delicate moment for truce

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Turkey's Gaziantep near the Syria border, said it was a delicate moment for the ceasefire.

"They [Syrian rebel groups] have sent an urgent appeal to the UN and to Turkey, which is the key player in the ceasefire, to negotiate with the Russians and try to stop the Syria government, warning that if this continues, there will be no option but to resume the fighting," he said.

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"The terms of the ceasefire insist that the moment it comes into effect, there should be no military operation, no party should take advantage of it. But the Syrian opposition would need that guarantee, that the guns must fall silent across Syria."

The Syrian civil war started as a largely unarmed uprising against Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-on armed conflict.

Calculating a precise death toll is difficult, partially owing to the forced disappearances of tens of thousands of Syrians whose fates remain unknown.

Almost 11 million Syrians - half the country's prewar population - have been displaced from their homes. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

The U.N. Security Council has scheduled a vote at 11 a.m. EST Friday on a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

The draft resolution to be voted on rejects Russia's proposed amendments which would delay any cease-fire.

Whether Russia vetoes or abstains on the resolution remains to be seen.

Russia's amended U.N. resolution would rule out an immediate 30-day cease-fire in Syria to deliver aid and evacuate the critically ill proposed by Sweden and Kuwait and backed by most of the U.N. Security Council.

Several council diplomats who examined the Russian draft, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said it was unacceptable.

The final draft of the Swedish-Kuwait resolution orders the cease-fire to start 72 hours after the resolution' adoption.

A main Syrian opposition group is calling on the international community to prevent Russia from voting on a new U.N. Security Council resolution saying Moscow is part of the conflict in the Arab country.

Russia has been a main backer for Syrian President Bashar Assad and has joined the battle on his side since 2015 tipping the balance of power in his favor. Opposition activists say Russian warplanes are taking part in bombarding rebel-held eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus, also known as eastern Ghouta, where more than 400 people have been killed since Sunday.

Salwa Aksoy, vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Turkey that according to the United Nations charter countries that are part of a conflict have no right to vote on draft resolutions.

Sweden and Kuwait were seeking a vote on a resolution ordering a 30-day cease-fire to allow relief agencies to deliver aid and evacuate the critically sick and wounded from besieged areas to receive medical care.

But Russia's U.N. ambassador Vassily Nebenzia put forward last-minute amendments, saying the proposed resolution was "simply unrealistic." A new vote was likely Friday.

Aksoy said in Turkey Friday that "what is happening in Ghouta is a war of annihilation and crimes against humanity." She blamed Assad's government as well as his backers Russia and Iran for the violence.

She said over the past three months more than 2,000 civilians have been killed, nearly 5,000 wounded and 32 medical centers and clinics have been destroyed.

Human Rights Watch is criticizing the way Turkey is conducting its offensive in northern Syria, saying it has failed to take necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties.

The New York-based group cites three attacks in the Afrin region in late January that it says killed a total of 26 civilians, including 17 children.

In a statement Friday, it called on Turkey to thoroughly investigate these strikes and make the findings public.

Turkey launched an air and ground offensive in the Kurdish-controlled region on Jan. 20, saying it aims to clear Afrin of Syrian Kurdish militia which Turkey considers to be an offshoot of its own outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting within Turkey.

According to several estimates around 120 civilians have been killed so far in the offensive. Turkey denies hitting civilians.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The UN Security Council has unanimously passed a resolution supporting a ceasefire currently in effect in Syria as well as talks expected to be held next month to end the near six-year civil war.

The text of the measure said it "welcomes and supports the efforts by Russia and Turkey to end violence in Syria and jumpstart a political process."

Russia and Turkey brokered the ceasefire agreement in the hope of preparing the way for peace talks in Kazakhstan in the new year.

The truce, largely intact in its second day, excludes the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group. </s> UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but it was not immediately clear if the text had won the support of Syrian ally Russia.

The vote comes as warplanes pounded eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria’s capital, for a fifth day running. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to “war activities” there.

Russia on Thursday proposed amendments to the resolution drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, arguing that the language was unrealistic and that the 15-member Security Council could not simply impose a truce on Syria without consulting the parties.

It was not immediately clear what changes were made to the text. The council is due to vote at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Friday, said Kuwait’s U.N. mission, president of the council for February.

A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France. Russia has cast 11 vetoes on possible Security Council action on Syria since its civil war began in 2011.

Previous attempts at a cessation of hostilities in Syria have quickly unraveled. </s> After multiple delays, the UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

The truce would allow for the delivery of emergency aid and the evacuation of the wounded in some of Syria's hardest-hit areas, including the besieged Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus.

Diplomats said Saturday's vote ended up being a bit of a showdown between Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, and her Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, over the timing of a ceasefire.

The diplomats said the United States fought to keep language in the resolution that called for an immediate start to the ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access without delay. The Russians kept trying to water it down to delay implementation, the diplomats said.

In the end the Russians relented and the language on an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access were retained, the diplomats said. They said they are skeptical the Syrian regime will comply but are hopeful the resolution could be a turning point.

Speaking right after the vote, Haley took a jab at Russia, saying the Security Council was late to respond to the crisis.

"On Thursday, in an effort to stall, Russia called for an open meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria. At that meeting, 14 members of this council were ready to impose a ceasefire. But Russia obstructed the vote again," she said. "And then yesterday (Friday), this council sat around for hours, ready to vote, only to have Russia delay yet again. Every minute this council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew."

Haley said the bombing continued as the negotiations dragged on.

"In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and shelling? How many more images did we need to see of fathers holding their dead children? All for nothing, because here we are voting for a ceasefire that could have saved lives days ago."

The death toll soared while diplomatic maneuvering was underway.

More than 520 people have been killed and 2,500 wounded since Sunday in the relentless bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, according to a statement from Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières.

"Our hospital is full, and we already got hit twice," a doctor with the humanitarian organization said Saturday on Twitter.

Syrian activists said the regime fired thousands of artillery shells and rocket fire Friday night and Saturday, including incendiary bombs.

"They were bursting in the sky, and the colors were white and dark orange," said Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the White Helmets rescue group.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said shelling by "incendiary substances" caused fires in Eastern Ghouta.

Around 400,000 people are in hiding as the Damascus suburbs have been pounded with shells, mortars and bombs since Sunday night.

Most of the dead are women, children and the elderly, Dr. Fayez Orabi, head of the enclave's health department, told CNN in a series of WhatsApp messages.

"It's difficult to have a precise count because of the internet and communications are weak and the shelling and bombing are 24 hours," Orabi said. "During writing this message to you more than 20 rockets have fell around us," he added.

Meanwhile, armed rebels in Eastern Ghouta used "dozens of mortar and rocket shells and sniper fire" to target residential neighborhoods in Damascus, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Saturday.

The attacks injured a number of civilians and caused material damage, according to SANA.

Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said he hopes the ceasefire will provide a much-needed respite for Ghouta.

"It is important that all sides comply with the terms of the resolution and allow humanitarian aid and medical evacuations. But it is only a small step in the right direction," he said. </s> Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, foreground, speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, with a montage in the background showing Secretary of State John Kerry shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

UNITED NATIONS — Rival resolutions on Syria backed by the West and Russia were defeated in the U.N. Security Council on Saturday, offering no relief to the besieged city of Aleppo and the key powers even more divided over a course of action in the war-ravaged country.

Russia vetoed a French-drafted resolution demanding an immediate halt to the bombing campaign that the Syrian government and Russia are carrying out against rebel-held districts in Aleppo. The rival Russian draft which made no mention of a bombing halt was rejected because it failed to get the minimum nine "yes" votes needed for approval by the 15-member council.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current rotating council president, said before the votes that members were engaging in "one of the strangest spectacles" in the Security Council, because they were meeting knowing that neither resolution would be adopted.

"This waste of time is inadmissible," he said.

The votes reflected the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body which is charged with ensuring international peace and security but has totally failed to take action to end the more than 5-year Syrian conflict which has killed over 300,000 people and displaced millions.

The French-backed resolution received 11 "yes" votes, two "no" votes from Russia and Venezuela, and abstentions from China and Angola. The Russian resolution received four "yes" votes, nine "no" votes, and two abstentions.

It was the fifth veto by Russia of a Western-backed resolution aimed at ending the Syrian conflict.

When Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari started speaking, a number of ambassadors walked out, including the representatives of Britain, France, Ukraine and the United States.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who addressed the session before the vote on the French resolution, warned that the continued bombing of Aleppo was killing civilians and destroying hospitals and schools — "and has nothing to do with combatting terrorism," as Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and its close ally Russia contend.

"It is the annihilation of Aleppo," he said, declaring that the continued bombing will leave the city in ruins, a place where citizens will be left to their "executioners."

He compared Aleppo's likely fate to Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, Srebrenica during the Bosnian war and the Chechen capital Grozny which was pummeled by the Russian army in the mid-1990s.

Russia's Churkin said the demand for a bombing halt in Aleppo was "not fleshed out" and would affect the government-controlled western part of the city as well as the rebel-held east.

He said the French resolution's adoption would have been the first where the Security Council decided on a course of action for a permanent council member without prior agreement — meaning that Russia would have been required to stop all flights and bombing of Aleppo.

Churkin noted that activity in Aleppo had gone down on Friday and "we hope this is a trend that will continue." </s> UNITED NATIONS -- Rival resolutions on Syria backed by the West and Russia were defeated Saturday in the U.N. Security Council, offering no relief to the besieged city of Aleppo and leaving the key powers even more divided over a course of action in the war-ravaged country.

Russia vetoed a French-drafted resolution demanding an immediate halt to the bombing campaign that the Syrian government and Russia are carrying out against rebel-held districts in Aleppo. The rival Russian draft, which made no mention of a bombing halt, was rejected because it failed to get the minimum nine yes votes needed for approval by the 15-member council.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current rotating council president, said before the votes that members were engaging in "one of the strangest spectacles" in the Security Council, because they were meeting knowing that neither resolution would be adopted.

"This waste of time is inadmissible," he said.

The votes reflected the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body, which is supposed to ensure international peace and security but has failed to take action to end the more than five-year Syrian conflict.

The French-backed resolution received 11 "yes" votes, two "no" votes from Russia and Venezuela, and abstentions from China and Angola. The Russian resolution received four "yes" votes, nine "no" votes, and two abstentions.

It was the fifth veto by Russia of a Western-backed resolution aimed at ending the Syrian conflict.

The Russian draft resolution called for a separation of moderate and extremist forces in Syria. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft called the resolution "a sham" that would do nothing to protect civilians from being killed in Aleppo.

Several diplomats said Russia's last-minute introduction of the rival resolution was meant to put a negative spotlight on both sides of the war in Syria. Instead of Russia being the lone veto on a resolution demanding an end to the bombing campaign by Syrian and Russian aircraft in Aleppo, now the Western powers have vetoed a resolution calling for a halt to fighting in that region.

France circulated its draft resolution a week ago, saying it wanted the council to unite behind it. But negotiations never got Russia on board, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's visit to Moscow last week didn't, either.

Russia, a close Syria ally, has opposed any grounding of its warplanes, which have been supporting President Bashar Assad's military campaign.

Churkin called the French draft "very hastily put together."

"I frankly believe that this is designed not to make progress" in ending the current stalemate "but to cause a Russian veto," he told reporters after U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura briefed the Security Council in private Friday morning.

Churkin said it was "unprecedented" that the 15-member council would ask a permanent member to limit its activities, in this case requiring the Russian military to stop flights.

The French draft expresses the Security Council's intention to take "further measures" -- U.N. code for sanctions -- in the event that any party to the Syria conflict doesn't comply with its demands. There is no mention of this in the Russian text.

The Russian draft stressed "the urgent need to achieve and verify separating moderate forces from 'Jabhat Al-Nusra' as a key priority," referring to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Key powers are divided over the course of action in war-ravaged Aleppo, and Syria in general, even as UNICEF's representative in Syria warned that the violence was causing "dire" humanitarian and psychological effects on both sides of Aleppo.

U.N. agencies are on "standby" to deliver assistance to the divided city, Hanaa Singer of the U.N.'s children agency told The Associated Press.

Also on Saturday, Syrian state media outlets and a Syria monitoring group said pro-government troops advanced in a northern district of eastern Aleppo, wrestling control from rebel fighters in their latest push into the besieged area.

Singer said conditions in besieged Aleppo are "terribly dire," with hospitals hit, doctors overwhelmed, and more than 100 children killed in bombings since Sept. 19. Conditions for thousands of displaced in the government-held part of the city also are deteriorating, with some of them being displaced for up to six times in the past three years, she said.

Singer returned last week from a weeklong trip to the government-held part of Aleppo where she visited thousands of displaced Syrians. Most are crammed in makeshift shelters, mosques, parks and churches after recently fleeing clashes on the front line between rebels and pro-government forces. In one case, a mother so desperate from the continuous displacement stabbed her baby girl, thinking she will save her daughter the misery of living on handouts and without a home, Singer said.

Describing the situation for thousands of families living in shelters in government-controlled Aleppo, Singer said: "These [are] the horrors in western Aleppo. God knows what is happening [in the case of] mental health or the psychological situation on the eastern [rebel-held] side."

Western Aleppo, controlled by the government, is separated from eastern rebel-held Aleppo by a few yards, sometimes by a single plastic sheet or pockmarked building. An estimated 275,000 people are living in the rebel-held part of Aleppo, with no international aid reaching the area since the first week of July. Besides the scarce assistance, it is also difficult to assess the needs with the ever-evolving violent situation, and lack of access for international aid groups, she said.

"I think we all agree, and especially if you have been so close in the area there and seeing the dire situation in the west, hearing about the horrible situation in the east, all we need now is [for] the violence to stop," Singer said. "The violence has to stop, and once the violence stops, the U.N., we absolutely stand ready. We are ready. We are actually on standby."

Singer said U.N. plans are in place for government-held Aleppo to accommodate people who may evacuate the besieged part of the city if a cease-fire takes effect.

According to medical charity Doctors Without Borders, hospitals in the eastern side of Syria's Aleppo have been attacked 23 times since July, damaging all eight facilities that have not yet been shuttered or destroyed. Since the U.S.-Russian cease-fire broke down Sept. 19, the situation in besieged Aleppo has deteriorated under relentless bombardment. Water stations and civil-defense centers also have been hit, while more than 320 people have been killed in eastern Aleppo in nearly three weeks of violence.

"In eastern Aleppo, the situation is terribly dire," Singer said. "Lots of schools and of hospitals have been hit; we understand that there are only 30 doctors there. We have information that at least over 100 children have been killed. We hear that because of the lack of services and lack of health facilities that some children, that doctors can't cope with all the cases, and some children in dire situation are left to die."

Information for this article was contributed by Edith M. Lederer and Sarah El Deeb of The Associated Press.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously votes in favor of the Russian and Turkey-backed ceasefire currently in effect in Syria.