Despite the UN’s warnings previously that closing the last aid corridor from Turkey into northwest Syria’s rebel-held areas would spell catastrophe for millions of people, Russia vetoed on Friday the UNSC resolution that would have extended cross-border aid by one year.
The vote, which was scrapped on Thursday following a disagreement between Russia and the West and later held on Friday, has seen 13 of the 15 members of the Council voting in favor of the resolution while China abstained though it often votes the same way as Russia.
Proposed by Norway and Ireland, the vetoed resolution would’ve extended the aid for six months until mid-January 2023, and then for an additional six months unless the UNSC decides otherwise.
The secretary-general was asked to prepare a substantive report, including on the progress in meeting humanitarian needs, the operation’s transparency, and the progress on channeling aid across the front line as condition for the extension.
After being in effect since 2014, the authorization for delivering aid across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa, a lifeline for more than 2.4 million people in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib, is set to expire Sunday.
Observers note that Sunday’s deadline still leaves time for the UNSC members to find common ground since Russia is seeking a six-month extension.
As an ally of Damascus, which doesn’t support the aid mechanism which is seen by both countries as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, Moscow believes the delivery of aid to the northwest region should only be carried out from Damascus.
Having already forced a reduction in the number of allowed border crossings, Russia had recently hinted that it would oppose the extension after it has curtailed in recent years a number of Western-backed measures.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ data shows that after nearly 10,000 trucks with humanitarian aid passed through Bab al-Hawa last year, over 4,600 aid trucks have crossed it so far this year.
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