United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Ali al-Zaatari has warned of a “looming humanitarian catastrophe” in four towns of the warn-torn country. He has pleaded with President Bashar al-Assad to allow the passage of aid to the 60,000 civilians trapped there, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday.

The towns of Zabadani, Madaya, Fua and Kefraya are besieged by Hezbollah fighters and government troops. “Sixty-thousand innocent people are trapped there in a cycle of daily violence and deprivation, where malnutrition and lack of proper medical care prevail...People are in need, and they cannot wait any longer. We need to act now,” al-Zaatari said in a statement on Monday.

The UN representative also emphasised the importance of allowing “free access to people in need” without the need for “repeated requests”. The global body was last able to deliver humanitarian aid to the four towns in November. Earlier in February, the UN had said it was granted access to only 40,000 people in besieged regions, despite seeking to deliver aid to nearly a million people.

Moreover, Syrian rebels seem unlikely to attend peace talks in Kazakhstan, scheduled for February 14-15, claiming that Russia had failed to ensure that Assad’s side complied with the terms of the ceasefire. “The opposition factions will not attend the Astana talks because the Russian side did not abide by what they agreed to...uphold the ceasefire agreement,” Mohammad Al Aboud, a senior rebel official, told Reuters on Monday

Another rebel leader said only a handful of their representatives may attend the dialogue in the Kazakh capital if there was any progress in the situation in the next couple of days.