Catastrophe looms for Idlib as Russia and China cut UN aid lifeline
A six-year Security Council mandate to support the Syrian province is set to end this Friday
Russia and China have vetoed a last-ditch attempt by western members of the UN Security Council to extend for six months the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria across its border with Turkey.
The two vetoes blocked the German-Belgian resolution despite the support of the 13 other members, all of whom voted in favour.
This is the second veto this week by Russia and China on the resolution, and the six-year UN mandate for aid deliveries is set to expire on Friday.
The UN says the aid deliveries from Turkey are a “lifeline” to millions of Syrian civilians living in the country’s rebel-held north-west. Russia and China, allies of the Assad regime, want to cut the number of border crossings to one, arguing those areas can be reached with humanitarian help from within Syria.
Also on Friday, the council voted on a Russian draft text to approve aid deliveries for one Turkish crossing for one year, but it failed after only garnering four votes in support.
Diplomats said work would continue to see if a compromise could be reached among council members.
The Security Council first authorised the cross-border aid operation into Syria in 2014, which also included access from Jordan and Iraq. Those crossings were cut in January because of opposition by Russia and China.
Before the vote, the US Ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, told The National that her country wanted to stop Moscow and Beijing from politicising humanitarian assistance.
“We have been working all hours, day and night, to make certain that the members of the council understand the importance of not allowing Russia and China to politicise the humanitarian assistance in order to prop up the Assad regime,” Ms Craft told The National during a media briefing on Thursday.
“We are going to be fighting to save as many lives as possible, and that means that we will be fighting for the two borders for a six-month time.” With the veto and the mandate expiring on Friday, the Security Council was due to discuss more amendments as a last resort to find a way forward.
Aid organisations have issued warnings of an aggravated humanitarian catastrophe for the many displaced people living in the north-western province of Idlib if the resolution is not extended.
Amnesty International called the failure to pass a resolution and the successive vetoes “despicable”.
Friday’s veto was Russia’s 16th on Syria since the conflict started in 2011. Experts are calling the Security Council’s paralysis on the issue deeply worrying.
“With the cross-border mechanism expiring tonight, today’s veto is deeply worrying.
“All week, UNSC members have been trying to find a way forward to extend the cross-border aid operation,” said Emma Beals, an independent researcher and editor at Syria in Context.
On Thursday, Idlib reported its first Covid-19 case, sparking fears that an outbreak of the virus could wreak havoc on an already poor part of the country.
Russia wants aid deliveries to go through its ally, Damascus, but that aim is seen as unacceptable by other Security Council members given the regime’s behaviour in politicising aid deliveries.
“The resolution was only ever needed because of the Syrian regime’s policy of weaponising aid and starving its opponents into submission,” Ms Beals said.
The last-ditch hope now would be for “UNSC members to reach a workable agreement in the coming hours and days,” the expert said.
But, she said, given the politics, “any compromise will be less than the mandate that is required to serve Syria’s northwest and north-east”.
Diplomats said work would continue to see if a compromise could be reached among council members
Since Friday, three million people living in an isolated and impoverished stretch of land in north-western Syria have indefinitely lost access to vital aid.
The UN’s six-year-long mandate for aid deliveries, which allowed it to deliver essential goods across Syria’s borders to Idlib, with the government’s intervention, has expired, after Russia and China vetoed extensions to aid coming in from Turkey twice last week.
The decision has cut off a “lifeline” for Syrians living in Idlib, according to the UN, jeopardising the well-being of millions. Alarmingly, the Sino-Russian vetoes came one day after Idlib announced its first case of the coronavirus. The first Covid-19 patient in the enclave is a doctor who came in contact with patients at a hospital on the Syrian-Turkish border, potentially infecting scores of others.
Idlib is woefully unprepared for a full-blown Covid-19 outbreak. More than one third of the region’s inhabitants are internally displaced people living in squalid camps, where it is impossible to practise physical distancing and protect one’s self from infection. The region has also been relentlessly bombed, with hospitals specifically targeted by the Syrian regime, before a truce was signed earlier this year.
Less than 400 coronavirus cases have been officially recorded in Syria. But the true number of infections is likely many times higher than the official toll. Much like the rest of the country, Idlib has little access to testing equipment. With its healthcare infrastructure in tatters, the enclave is on the verge of a major public health catastrophe. Idlib is, unfortunately, not the only area suffering from the politicisation of humanitarian relief. For instance, the Rukban refugee camp, along the Syrian-Jordanian border, is cut off from its regime-held surroundings and from Jordan. Vital aid has not been delivered in nearly a year because of pressure from the regime and its allies.
Withholding aid from Syria’s most vulnerable populations amounts to a death sentence. A Russian proposal that would have allowed for just one Turkish crossing for six months was also rejected at the UN Security Council. This counter-proposal offered no real solution to the predicament of Syrians. Moscow seeks to channel the deliveries through Damascus, but there is no guarantee that Bashar Al Assad’s corrupt and cash-strapped regime will refrain from withholding or diverting humanitarian relief. While foreign powers bicker at the UN, ordinary Syrians pay the price of these divisions.
Politicising aid amounts to denying Syrians their basic rights. Food, medicine and other necessities are channelled through the UN’s relief agencies, but their operations have now come to a grinding halt.
The Security Council must not be used as an arena for foreign powers to settle their differences. If nothing is done in the coming days, millions will incur the risk of dying from Covid-19 or hunger. The international community must come together and ensure civilian lives do not become bargaining chips used by the Syria regime to advance its cynical political goals.