UN Security Council can’t figure out Syria aid fiasco
Severe bread shortages loom for Syria as fresh US sanctions grip
Russia put forward a failed proposal for leaving one border open to provide UN humanitarian aid to Syria via Turkey, while forcing the rest to go through Damascus. The UN Security Council voted down the resolution, with the UK, US, France, Belgium and Germany siding against Russia and China. This was in retaliation for a Russian and Chinese veto over a proposal by the Western states to keep more crossings open.
At the heart of the issue is the fact that a third of Syria is not controlled by Damascus and needs humanitarian aid. The Russian-backed regime in Damascus wants to control the aid. Russia argues that the Turkish-occupied part of northern Syria and America’s role in eastern Syria is basically an illegal land grab on Syria’s territory.
The US has so far largely betrayed its own partners in eastern Syria, the partly Kurdish area, allowing the UN to cut off aid to those areas while the US begs to work with Turkey to have two crossings open to Idlib and Turkish-occupied Afrin. Human rights groups believe the current discussion is shameful. Many, from Amnesty International to the Norwegian Refugee Council, have condemned the great powers for closing the crossing to eastern Syria.
Russia appears to have Vietnam and South Africa on its side with China against the Western countries. Indonesia, Tunisia and others have abstained. The July 7 and 8 resolutions, vetoed by one side or the other now leave the countries just a few days before July 11 to come to an agreement. Russia seems to hold all the cards and can simply let the issue expire. Moscow says it wants to curtail cross-border assistance to Syria, and have Damascus coordinate the humanitarian aid.
For years the UN and other groups have basically allowed themselves to become part of the way Damascus has run the conflict in Syria. For instance, they air-dropped aid to Deir Ezzor when the regime ran it, but they never did that for people in Tanf’s Rukban camp or eastern Syria when it was under siege. Now, the great and regional powers will decide the fate of millions in Syria by arguing at the UN.
Countries like the US, which plays a key role in eastern Syria training the Syrian Democratic Forces to fight ISIS, could help deliver more aid, but it appears Washington has little interest in this aspect of stabilization.
Meanwhile Thursday, officials warned that Syria could face severe bread shortages for the first time since the start of the war.
Any major disruptions to Syria’s bread subsidy system could undermine the government and threaten a population highly dependent on wheat as rampant inflation drives up food prices.
“There is already some evidence of people cutting out meals,” said Mike Robson, the
UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Syria representative.
“If the currency continues under pressure, imports will be difficult to obtain and the months leading up to the 2021 wheat harvest may see real shortages.”
Syria’s economy is collapsing under the weight of its complex, multi-sided conflict, now in its tenth year, and a financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon, choking off a vital source of dollars.
Soaring prices have made life harder for Syrians ravaged by a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.
In the past six months alone, the number of “food insecure” people in Syria is estimated to have risen from 7.9 million to 9.3 million, according to World Food Programme data.
“My 50,000 pound (monthly) salary ($21 on the informal market) is barely enough for a few days and I am living on debt. People are selling their furniture... In our lives this has never happened,” said state employee Yara. While food is not restricted by Western sanctions, banking restrictions and asset freezes have made it difficult for most trading houses to do business with Syria.
With major grain traders out of the equation, the government relied on businessmen to conclude transactions to sustain the bread subsidies.
“They import quantities to Lebanon and then take it to Syria by land unless it is Russia giving direct shipments, government to government, then they can deliver to (the port of) Latakia,” said Ayman Abdel Nour, a US-based political analyst.
“Now that window has closed with the problems in Lebanon.”
Reuters data shows that since June 2019, Hoboob has issued at least 10 international tenders for between 100,000 and 200,000 tons of wheat, failing to report results for most.
Youssef Kassem, the head of Hoboob, has been quoted by media as stating that 1.2 million tons of Russian wheat imports were contracted throughout 2019 amounting to $310 million. Reuters could not independently verify that information.
Hoboob tried to barter some of Syria’s durum wheat, used in making pasta, for soft bread-making wheat twice in September 2019, with no result announced.
When bread lines started to get longer in government-held areas around March, Russia was urged to send the full amount of the 100,000 tons of wheat it had promised as humanitarian aid since 2019.