GENEVA (AP) — U.N. humanitarian aid expert says Russian officials have told him Syria's government has withdrawn a controversial law that allowed for authorities to seize property left behind by civilians who fled fighting in the country's civil war.
Jan Egeland also said on Thursday that President Bashar Assad's government has agreed to allow convoys of aid to the Rukban area along the Syrian-Jordanian border that U.N. aid teams and partners have not accessed since January.
As many as 50,000 beleaguered civilians have been stuck in the largely barren berm area for months.
Egeland of the office of U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura also confirmed he will leave his post in November. He spoke a day after de Mistura told the U.N. Security Council that he is leaving for "personal" reasons.
