U.N. council to vote Monday on monitoring Aleppo evacuation

The U.N. Security Council agreed on a draft resolution aimed at ensuring that U.N. officials can monitor evacuations from the Syrian city of Aleppo and will vote on the text on Monday, diplomats said after several hours of negotiations.

The council had been scheduled to vote on Sunday on a French draft, but Russia, an ally of the Syrian government in the civil war, circulated a rival text. Russia raised concerns about sending in U.N. officials unprepared to monitor the protection of civilians who remain in the last rebel-held area of eastern Aleppo, which has been under siege for years.

The evacuation ground to a halt on Friday after demands from pro-government forces that people also be moved out of two Shi’ite villages besieged by insurgents.

Armed men burned five buses that were supposed to be used for an evacuation near Idlib on Sunday, holding up the renewed deal to allow thousands to leave eastern Aleppo, where evacuees crammed into buses for hours, waiting to move.

French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre said the compromise text was based on the French draft and explained that the vote had been delayed until Monday because “given the importance of the text, some of us have preferred to report back to capitals.”

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