- By Raffi Berg and Christy Cooney
- BBC News
1 hour ago
Image source: Getty Images
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Millions of people in rebel-controlled north-west Syria depend on UN aid to survive
The United Nations called Syria’s terms “unacceptable” for an offer to continue allowing aid to rebel-held areas.
Syria’s ambassador to the UN said on Thursday his government would continue to allow aid to enter the country from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.
The members of the UN Security Council had not previously been able to agree on keeping the border crossing open.
Around 4.1 million people in north-west Syria are dependent on aid supplies.
In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh said Damascus had taken a “sovereign decision” to allow aid shipments to pass through Bab al-Hawa for the next six months.
This would allow supplies to resume “in full cooperation and coordination with the Syrian government,” he said.
But in a document sent to the Security Council and seen by news agencies AFP and Portal, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the proposal contained “two unacceptable conditions”.
It first said that the Syrian government had “emphasized that the United Nations should not communicate with entities labeled ‘terrorists’.”
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, President Bashar al-Assad has frequently labeled rebel groups or opponents of his regime as terrorists.
OCHA also said Damascus also wants the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) to oversee and facilitate the distribution of all relief supplies in north-west Syria.
It said the condition was “neither compatible with the independence of the United Nations nor practical given the lack of a presence of the ICRC and SARC in the region”.
However, it said the Syrian government’s offer could be a “basis for the United Nations to conduct lawful cross-border humanitarian operations through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing”.
On Tuesday, Russia — a key Syrian ally — used its veto in the Security Council to block a nine-month extension to the United Nations-brokered deal allowing aid to be shipped through Bab al-Hawa.
Syria and Russia have previously objected to the UN aid delivery mechanism as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
But Russia failed to garner enough support among the 15 Council members for its favored option of a six-month extension.
The US, which joined France and Britain in calling for a one-year extension, accused Russia of “an act of utter cruelty”.
The Syrian government’s offer raised concerns that Damascus might be able to control the distribution of aid and prevent it from reaching opposition-controlled areas.
“The priority must be to get aid flowing quickly back to the people who need it – and then to have certainty about their future,” British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said after Syria’s announcement.
“But without UN supervision, control of this vital lifeline has been handed over to the man responsible for the suffering of the Syrian people,” she added.
The Bab al-Hawa lifeline has become even more important since a devastating earthquake struck northwest Syria in February, killing more than 4,500 people and displacing 50,000 families.
Despite the standoff around Bab al-Hawa, the United Nations has until August 13 to use two additional relief crossings opened with the approval of the Syrian government after the earthquake.