Russia, China veto U.N. renewal of Syria aid

UNITED NATIONS — Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution backed by the 13 other Security Council members Friday that would have maintained humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest through two crossing points from Turkey — just hours before the current mandate expires.

Without waiting for the announcement and signaling its intent to use its veto, Russia announced late Thursday that it had circulated a new resolution which would authorize just one crossing from Turkey for a year.

Diplomats said the 15 Security Council members have been discussing a possible compromise and would shortly hold a closed meeting to discuss a possible way ahead.

Germany and Belgium said in a joint statement after the vote that they remain committed to reaching a solution to ensure the “critical lifeline” to “millions of people in dire need of cross-border assistance in Syria.”

International Rescue Committee President David Miliband said reducing aid deliveries to just one crossing point “would cut essential health supplies to one million people, and leave the U.N. unable to scale up in response both to covid-19 and deteriorating food security.”

“Today is yet another example of the Age of Impunity, where two countries can veto with full knowledge, but utter disregard, for the impact it will have on civilian lives — all against the backdrop of an unprecedented and devastating global pandemic,” Miliband said.

A series of tweets from Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky on Thursday night announced the new Russian resolution and urged Western support.

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

The German-Belgium resolution would have extended the mandate for the two border crossings from Turkey to the northwest now being used — Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa — for six months.

The Russian-drafted resolution would only authorize cross-border deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, for a year.

Germany’s U.N. ambassador, Christoph Heusgen, said Wednesday that while the Bab al-Hawa crossing is used to deliver aid to Idlib province, the Bab al-Salam crossing reaches the region north of Aleppo, where an additional 300,000 Syrians displaced by the last offensive are now sheltering.

“Both areas are separated by conflict lines,” he said.

Russia’s Polyansky tweeted that Bab al-Hawa “accounts for more than 85% of total volume of operations.”

“We categorically reject claims that Russia wants to stop humanitarian deliveries to the Syrian population in need,” he tweeted. “Our draft is the best proof that these allegations are groundless.”

In a third tweet, Polyansky said Western nations should “seize this opportunity” and support the Russian draft which adapts “to the situation on the ground.”

“If they block our compromise proposal they will be responsible for the consequences,” the Russian envoy warned.

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft has 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.