Russia and China veto UN aid plan for Syria’s last rebel enclave

RUSSIA and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution yesterday that would maintain crossborder aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest, in a move that could threaten millions of civilian lives.

Russia instead proposed a resolution that would allow the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months. Moscow – Syria’s closest ally – argues aid should be delivered via Damascus across conflict lines.

China said it was in favour of maintaining cross-border aid but opposed the resolution because its drafters – Germany and Belgium – failed to include a condemnation of unilateral US sanctions on Syria. The veto was the 15th that Russia has used since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. It was the ninth for China.

A European diplomat told AFP that the veto was an “extremely negative development”.

“They want to strangle the population even more,” the diplomat said, speaking anonymously, adding that aid “cannot reach the population from one crossing point. Insisting on only one crossing point is cynical and it doesn’t meet the needs of the people,” the source said.

Mark Lowcock, the UN humanitarian chief, said the two crossings at Bab al-salam and Bab al-haw are “a lifeline for millions of civilians whom the UN cannot reach by other means”. He told the Security Council last month that 2.8 million people in Idlib – 70 per cent of the region’s population – need humanitarian assistance.

The crossings were operating at maximum capacity, according to the president of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, who said it defied reason to support cutting aid to Idlib during a pandemic: “Russia and China have put Syrian lives on the line,” said Mr Miliband.

In January, Russia used its veto threat to force the Security Council to adopt a resolution closing a border crossing from Jordan and another from Iraq into north-east Syria.

In May, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told his American counterpart: “Do not waste your time on efforts to reopen the closed cross-border points.”

The closure of the Iraq crossing has cut 40 per cent of medical aid to northeast Syria, Western diplomats say.