DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – The Syrian government has given the United Nations approval to use a border crossing from Turkey to continue delivering aid to militant-held northwest Syria for another six months after the Security Council failed to renew its authorization for the operation.
However, the UN aid deliveries would have to be “in full cooperation and coordination with the Syrian Government”, Syria’s UN Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh wrote in a letter on Thursday to the Security Council, seen by Reuters.
On Tuesday, Russia blocked a nine-month extension of a key Syria aid route at the UN Security Council. Moscow instead suggested a six-month extension.
That, however, was also rejected by the Security Council, with only Russia and China voting in favor, and the United States, the United Kingdom and France voting against.
The UN-brokered agreement that allows for the delivery of aid overland from Turkey into militant-held areas of Syria expired on Monday.
The Security Council has long been divided over Syria. Most members support cross-border operations, including the U.S. and UK, which have called for a full-year extension, while Russia has insisted on just six months.
The 15-member Security Council had been negotiating a text to allow the UN operation, which allows for food, water and medicine to be transported to militant-controlled northwest Syria without the authorization of the Syrian government, to continue using the Bab al-Hawa crossing for 12 months.
But Russia, which backs the government and has fought in the war in Syria, put forward a rival text proposing six months on Friday.
The cross-border authorization has for years been renewed for six-month periods.
The crossing provides for more than 80 percent of the needs of people living in militant-controlled areas – everything from diapers and blankets to chickpeas. The government in Damascus regularly denounces aid deliveries as a violation of its sovereignty.
In another development, Washington has sent military and logistics equipment, including a hundred armored vehicles, to its bases in the city of al-Hasakah, located in the northeast of Syria.
Arab News sources reported that the American troops once again sent weapons and military equipment to their illegal bases in this region.
The Syrian government considers the presence of the United States and Turkey in its territory illegal and has repeatedly emphasized that it will end this occupying presence. The Americans loot hundreds of barrels of Syria’s oil on a daily basis and sell them in the black markets with the cooperation of terrorists.
The U.S. transferred 100 armored vehicles and several stolen oil tankers to its bases in Syria’s Tell Beydar, Ash Shaddadi, and Rmelan.