UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Monday to keep a key border crossing from Turkey to Syria’s rebel-held northwest open for critical aid deliveries for another six months. Syria’s ally Russia — in a surprise move — supported the resolution.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after the vote that cross-border humanitarian operations “remain an indispensable lifeline for 4.1 million people in northwest Syria.”
The vote, the U.N. chief stressed, “comes as humanitarian needs have reached the highest levels since the start of the conflict in 2011, with people in Syria grappling with a harsh winter and a cholera outbreak,” according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
All eyes had been on Russia, which in the past has abstained or vetoed resolutions on cross-border aid deliveries. It has sought to replace humanitarian aid crossing the Turkish border to northwestern Idlib province with convoys from government-held areas across conflict lines. Since the early years of the war, Turkey has sided with and supported Syria’s rebels.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the decision to support the resolution “difficult,” describing the northwest as “an enclave that is inundated with terrorists.” The vote, he said, should not be viewed as a change in Moscow’s “principled position” that cross-border aid deliveries — which began in 2014 — are temporary and should be replaced by Syrian government-controlled deliveries.
Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh criticized some Western countries for “politicizing humanitarian work” and said Western sanctions “have aggravated the suffering of the Syrians.” He claimed the government has been “working relentlessly" to provide basic services to Syrians and urged more early recovery projects, which Russia has pushed for.
Last month, Guterres warned in a report to the council that the already dire humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening and if the aid deliveries from Turkey to northwestern Idlib weren’t renewed, millions of Syrians might not survive the winter.
He said deliveries have increased across conflict lines within the country but stressed that they cannot substitute for “the size or scope of the massive cross-border United Nations operation.” On Sunday, a convoy of 18 trucks entered the area of Idlib through front lines held by Syrian government forces.
The resolution put the Security Council on record as “determining that the devastating humanitarian situation in Syria continues to constitute a threat to peace and security in the region.”
Guterres said humanitarian access across Syria — both through cross-border operations and deliveries across front lines — must be expanded. He urged Security Council members and others “to continue supporting humanitarian partners’ efforts to deliver assistance to those who need it throughout Syria,” Dujarric said.
In July, the council approved a resolution extending humanitarian aid deliveries to Idlib for six months as Russia demanded. Many of the people sheltering in the area have been internally displaced by the nearly 12-year conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
The resolution co-sponsored by Brazil and Switzerland will allow for aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey to northwest Syria to continue for the next six months, until July 10.
Speaking on behalf of the Security Council’s 10 elected members, Ecuador’s U.N. Ambassador Hernan Perez Loose said the resolution will address “the dire and urgent needs of the Syrian people” but reiterated the need for “more certainty and predictability for humanitarian organizations.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield stressed that an extension of only six months — while allowing the “Syrian people to breathe a sigh of relief" — makes it “harder and more costly for aid workers to procure, hire and plan” assistance. It also hinders so-called recovery projects, or restoration of critical functions that helps communities bounce back — a key Russian demand.
“A 12-month extension is needed for the U.N., and it is needed for our humanitarian partners and for recipients,” she said.
David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee, echoed the U.S. ambassador, expressing relief at the cross-border renewal which will guarantee assistance over the winter but stressing that the six-month extension “will once again be short-lived.”
In addition to pushing for more cross-front-line aid deliveries, Russia has also pushed for early recovery projects in Syria. Guterres said in the December report that at least 374 early recovery projects have taken place throughout the country since January 2021, directly benefiting over 665,000 people, but he said more is needed.
The resolution also calls on all U.N. member states to respond to Syria’s “complex humanitarian emergency” and meet the urgent needs of the Syrian people “in light of the profound socioeconomics and humanitarian impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Russia has repeatedly said the cross-border aid deliveries that began in 2014 were meant to be temporary.
In July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey for humanitarian aid to northwest Idlib. Days later, the delivery of aid was reduced to just the Bab al-Hawa crossing for a year as they demanded.
In July 2021, Russia pressed for a further reduction, finally agreeing to a six-month extension with another six-months contingent on a report from the secretary-general on progress in cross-line deliveries. But last July, Russia insisted on U.N. authorization for just six months.
In Syria, an Idlib-based doctor, welcomed Monday's vote.
“The decision to extend aid through the border is the only real lifeline for Syria’s north, especially for the medical sector,” said Safwat Sheikhouni.
Had the resolution not been extended it would have been a “catastrophe” for local residents because it would have led to the closure of the offices there of most humanitarian organizations, he said.
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