Opposition decries UN-Assad agreement to vacate Homs rebel Areas instead of break the siege

The United Nations welcomed reports that an agreement has been reached to allow the evacuation of civilians from the besieged Syrian city of Homs and for aid to be delivered, a UN spokesman said.

The rebel-held Old Homs districts in the centre of the city have been under tight siege from President Bashar al-Assad's troops since June 2012. Thousands of residents there live in dire conditions, amid an acute shortage of food and medicine.

"We welcome the reports that the parties have agreed a humanitarian pause to allow civilians out of and aid into old Homs city," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement in New York.

"The United Nations and humanitarian partners had pre-positioned food, medical and other basic supplies on the outskirts of Homs ready for immediate delivery as soon as the green light was given by the parties for its passage. Aid staff were also on standby."

Burhan Ghalioun, Veteran opposition figure and former National Council president has decried the agreement in a statement posted on his official Facebook page, saying it’s an expression of collusion between international organizations and Assad, who practices a starvation policy as a war method on the Syrian people, and now such kind of agreements will encourage him more to get more benefits. 

Syria earlier said it reached a deal to allow "innocent" civilians to leave , potentially the first positive result after deadlocked peace talks in Switzerland last week, the Reuters news agency reported.

"The agreement will allow innocent civilians surrounded in the neighbourhoods of Old Homs - among them women and children, the wounded and the elderly - an opportunity to leave as soon as the necessary arrangements, in addition to offering them humanitarian aid," said a Syrian foreign ministry statement, cited on Syria TV.

"It will also allow in aid to civilians who choose to stay inside the old city."

Ghalioun said the solution is not in deporting the citizens from their homes but will be in allowing the aid convoys to enter the besieged neighborhoods.

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from neighbouring Lebanon, said that the governor of Homs, Talal Barazi, told Al Jazeera the evacuation process would begin on Friday.

"We understand that, first, there will be a ceasefire at 6am local time," our correspondent said.

"Three hours later at 9am local time, the evacuation will begin and they will first start by evacuating up to 200 people. They include mostly women, children up to the age of 15, as well as men over the age of 55. They will mostly be evacuated to a safe part of Homs, according to the governor."

'UN optimistic' 

At the Geneva talks, the Syrian government said women and children could leave the besieged parts of Homs immediately.

Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said more detailed statements from a Security Council meeting on Thursday were expected when it ended.

"It's worth stressing at this stage that this is an agreement. No one yet has got any aid in and no one has yet left the old city of Homs," he said.

"It's also worth stressing that an agreement on this was announced about two weeks ago ... early on in the Geneva talks. And nothing then happened.

"The UN seems optimistic, the UN now issuing a statement about these new announcements coming from Syria. But there is no confirmation yet that anyone has left the old city of Homs. No convoy has started moving."

At the Geneva talks, the government asked the opposition to provide names of male civilians who may wish to leave the siege imposed by its forces along with women and children.

Damascus said then that it had tried in the past to evacuate women and children but had been prevented by "terrorists". Syria's government routinely labels as terrorists all armed opposition groups.  With Al Jazeera