As of this morning, aid is flowing into seven Syrian cities most affected by sieges from both rebel and regime forces (details here). Populations in dire positions will have food and other supplies they desperately need. But I'm not sure what the point is, and I'm not even sure it's a good idea.
Everyone seems very shocked that people in these cities are starving (in some cases to death). But of course they are starving; they're being besieged. Starvation is the point of sieges - it's a way to win without having to fight a battle; it's the only way to win if the defences are stronger than your army. This isn't comparable to helping refugees in camps or even people in large areas controlled by government. The deprivation of the people inside isn't a byproduct of the fighting, it's the point of the fighting. Hypothetically, if everyone in the contested towns were willing to concede , the sieges would stop. Obviously, because of reprisals and scare resources, it's more complicated than than, but it's still true that you don't besiege your own side.
Of course, many people aren't on any side and, hideously, are simply caught in the middle. Their lives are awful and they die in numbers in ways I cannot imagine. But they are dying because there is a war on. They need that war to stop. Ultimately wars stop for two reasons: a) somebody wins, b) every sits down and plays nicely. The latter in this kind of case often because someone else is threatening you unless you do. I don't see how supplying cities under siege helps brings either of those forward. It very clearly prolongs the war. Cities that presumably were about to fall will now not fall, so we can do it all again next year. Similarly, I don't think entrenching existing positions makes anyone more likely to compromise.
Defenders will say that this is a precursor to a ceasefire which will pave the way to peace. God, I hope so. What follows makes me sound like a total bastard, but if it makes it worse by prolonging the agony, then this emergency aid hasn't done anything but make us feel better about ourselves at the expense of an already broken country. I'm not sufficiently expert to answer that question, but I really hope someone has thought about it very hard. I hope they decided it was worth it, and I hope they were right. I'm not sure either is true.
