January 9, 2023 The UN Security Council unanimously voted on Monday to extend a humanitarian aid operation into northwest Syria by another six months.
The United Nations’ most powerful body faced a Jan.10 deadline to extend the operation that since 2014 has allowed the UN and its partners to send food, medicine and other basic supplies into northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border.
It voted 15-0 in favor of the extension, with Russia joining the rest of the UNSC members in approving the resolution.The United States and its allies had warned that failure to reauthorize the aid operation would be catastrophic for the millions of impoverished Syrians who rely on it to meet their basic needs.
“Today’s vote allows the Syrian people to breathe a sigh of relief,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.“But while this lifeline will continue to operate, so much more could have been done and so much more still needs to be done.”
The cross-border aid mechanism that began in 2014 originally set up four border crossings — two in Turkey, one in Jordan and one in Iraq — through which humanitarian supplies could be delivered without requiring cooperation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has a history of obstructing aid deliveries to opposition-held parts of the country.Moscow has argued that humanitarian assistance should be channeled through Damascus rather than across Syria’s borders.
In remarks following the vote, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya called his country’s approval a “difficult decision” that “should not be viewed as a change in our principled position on the cross border mechanism.”
In recent years, Syria’s allies Russia and China have used their veto powers on the Security Council to reduce the number of delivery routes, leaving only the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border.The UN and its partners use the remaining aid corridor to reach an average of 2.7 million Syrians each month.
Faced with the threat of a Russian veto in July, the 15-member body settled on a six-month extension of deliveries through the aid corridor, rather than the full year sought by the United States and its allies.Aid agencies said the six-month renewal fell short of what was needed to address the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Economic conditions are dire in Idlib province.The last pocket of rebel resistance in northwest Syria, which is mainly controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham extremist group, is home to several million Syrians.
Many sought refuge in Idlib after fleeing conflict elsewhere in the country.
The uncertainty surrounding the cross-border resolution’s renewal each year causes panic in the aid community, forcing aid workers to stockpile supplies and appeal for the bare minimum at a time of unprecedented need in Syria.After 12 years of war, the UN says a record 14.6 million Syrians require urgent humanitarian assistance .
Editor’s note: This article has been updated since first publication.
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