The United Arab Emirates, UAE, on Thursday demanded an immediate cessation to the retaliatory attacks against the Syrian people and said that civilians willing to leave Aleppo City should be allowed to do so in full freedom, unhindered and without any threat.

The UAE also demands that the Syrian regime stop its arbitrary and forcible arrests, the UAE said in a statement read out by Juma Al Jenaibi, Permanent Representative of the UAE at the Arab League and Ambassador to Egypt, at an emergency meeting held by the permanent representatives at the request of Qatar to discuss the developments in Aleppo.

The UAE called upon influential parties to the Syrian issue to exert more effective efforts to protect innocent civilians and stop indiscriminate bombardment so as to allow the involved states to deliver humanitarian and medical aid in the city.

More than 270,000 Syrian civilians are in dire need of life-saving assistance, the ambassador said, while calling upon the international community to shoulder their responsibility towards the humanitarian crises and immediately intervention to ensure that the situation in Aleppo does not get any worse, Al Jenaibi noted.

"Without a doubt, the current crisis in Syria has evolved into an unprecedented catastrophe because of the indiscriminate and violent bombardment targeting civilians and killing hundreds of innocent people in Eastern Aleppo and the continued siege, which has led to a lack of food, water and fuel as well as to intensive displacement of more than 16,000 of the city’s residents. Thousands more are likely to flee their homes if the fighting continues like this in the coming days," Al Jenaibi said.

It is not possible to say that the Syrian regime forces have achieved a victory today when it is purging a city of its residents in this brutal way. It is also not possible to imagine how weak the international community has become because it is silent towards these crimes against humanity and the war crimes being committed there every day. This proves the international community has completely failed to contain this crisis at the beginning, which led to the humanitarian situation that we see today," the UAE Permanent Representative stressed