UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The UN Security Council voted unanimously Monday to keep a key border crossing from Turkey to Syria’s militant-held northwest open for critical aid deliveries for another six months. Syria’s ally Russia supported the resolution.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said after the vote that cross-border aid remains “an indispensable lifeline for 4.1 million people in northwest Syria.”
The vote, the UN 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,” according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
All eyes had been on Russia, which in the past abstained or vetoed resolutions on cross-border aid deliveries. It has sought to replace aid crossing the Turkish border to northwestern Idlib province with convoys from government-held areas in Syria. Since the early years of the war, Turkey has sided with and supported militants in Syria.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said supporting the resolution was “difficult,” describing the northwest as an enclave “inundated with terrorists.” The vote, he said, is not 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.
Nebenzya said the West was liable for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria, stressing that sanctions are a significant factor in the degradation of the humanitarian situation in Syria.
“Western delegations detail their efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance to Syria, but close their eyes to another uncomfortable topic: Their criminal unilateral sanctions, which are biting ordinary Syrians,” Nebenzya said.
Syria’s UN Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh criticized Western countries for “politicizing humanitarian work,” and said Western sanctions “have aggravated the suffering of the Syrians.” He added the government has been “working relentlessly” to provide basic services to Syrians.
Meanwhile, China’s representative urged action to guarantee the complete and efficient execution of the Security Council resolution regarding cross-border humanitarian delivery into Syria.
China hopes that the Security Council and relevant UN agencies will seize the opportunity of the extension to comprehensively sum up the experience and shortcomings in the implementation of Resolution 2642 in the past six months, so as to ensure the full and effective implementation of Resolution 2672 and make greater contributions to continuously improving the humanitarian situation of all Syrians, said Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations.