UN restarts Syria cross-border aid but shuts access point

NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council on Saturday passed a resolution to restart cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria, but only after caving to Russian pressure to close one of two access points into the wartorn country.

Following a week of division and seven ballots, the Council passed a proposal submitted by Germany and Belgium allowing the use of the Bab al-Hawa crossing point for one year.

The measure was approved by 12 of 15 members, with Russia, China and the Dominican Republic abstaining, diplomats said.

Authorisation for the continued transport of aid to Syria, a system in place since 2014, expired on Friday night after Moscow and Beijing used their veto power and the council then rejected a counterproposal from Russia.

With the approval of the German-Belgian proposal on Saturday, the Bab al-Hawa crossing point on Syria’s northwestern border with Turkey will be maintained for a year, until July 10, 2021.

This will allow badly needed humanitarian aid to continue flowing to several million Syrians living in the insurgent region of Idlib, which the Syrian regime does not control.

For weeks, Russia, Syria’s most important ally, has been demanding an end to the use of the Bab al-Salam border crossing, which leads to the Aleppo region in northern Syria.

European countries and the United States had wanted to maintain both crossing points.

“Russia controls this process,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group think tank.

“The drama and vetoes of the last week were a distraction as ultimately Russia was always going to force a settlement on roughly the terms we see today.”

The outcome of Saturday’s vote is a notable failure for the US, whose ambassador had called the maintenance of two border crossings a “red line”.

UN authorisation allows the international body to distribute aid to displaced Syrians without Damascus’s permission.

But Russia and China argue that the authorisation violates Syria’s sovereignty, and that aid can increasingly be channelled through Syrian authorities.