UN Council rejects Russia bid to limit Syrian aid deliveries

The UN Security Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a Russian resolution that would have cut back the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest to just one crossing point from Turkey.

Western countries that voted against the resolution have insisted on keeping the two current crossings from Turkey, with strong backing from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and humanitarian groups. UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has called the two crossings from Turkey “a lifeline for millions of civilians whom the UN cannot reach by other means.”

The Russian resolution needed a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council for approval, but Moscow got support from only three other countries — China, Vietnam and South Africa.

Its failure to get the nine votes meant the US, UK and France did not need to consider using their veto. Those three permanent council members voted against the resolution along with Germany, Belgium, Estonia and the Dominican Republic. Four countries abstained — Tunisia, Niger, Indonesia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Russia, Syria’s closest ally, circulated the draft resolution after it joined China on Tuesday in vetoing a draft resolution co-sponsored by Germany and Belgium to maintain aid deliveries through two border crossing points from Turkey for a year. It received 13 “yes” votes.

Russia has argued that aid should be delivered from within Syria across conflict lines. But the UN and humanitarian groups say aid for 2.8 million needy people in the northwest can’t get in that way.

The current Security Council mandate for UN cross-border aid deliveries expires Friday, and Germany and Belgium are expected to circulate a new proposal, likely to authorize the two current crossings from Turkey for six months.

In a joint statement after the vote, Germany and Belgium said that “millions of people are counting on the Security Council to allow for as much

NUMBER people in the northwest Syria are in need of humanitarian aid.

humanitarian access as possible ... (and) we will keep on working to this end.”

Whether the differences between the five veto-wielding council members can be resolved in the next 48 hours remained to be seen. US Ambassador Kelly Craft accused Russia and China of “breathtaking callousness and dishonesty” and distorting the realities on the ground. Their actions in both resolutions underscore “a harrowing truth — that Russia and China have decided that millions of Syrian lives are an insignificant cost of their partnership with the murderous Assad regime,” she said in a statement.