UN says Damascus conditions for cross-border aid 'unacceptable'
Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS
Fri, July 14, 2023
The delivery of humanitarian aid through the Bab al-Hawa crossing has been stalled since Monday, when a 2014 UN deal expired (OMAR HAJ KADOUR)
The United Nations is concerned about "unacceptable conditions" set by Damascus for allowing aid to flow through its Bab al-Hawa crossing to rebel-held areas in northwest Syria, according to a document reviewed Friday by AFP.
The delivery of humanitarian aid through the crossing has been stalled since Monday, when a 2014 UN deal expired.
A letter this week from Syrian authorities allowing use of the border crossing between Turkey and Syria "contains two unacceptable conditions," according to a document sent to the UN Security Council from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA said it was concerned that the Syrian government had "stressed that the United Nations should not communicate with entities designated as 'terrorist.'"
The second condition it bridled at was that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) should "supervise and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid" in northwest Syria.
The UN says more than four million people in northwest Syria are in need of food, water, medicine and other essentials.
Through an arrangement that began in 2014, the UN largely delivers relief to northwest Syria via neighboring Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
Syria announced on Thursday that it would authorize the UN to use Bab al-Hawa to deliver vital humanitarian aid to millions of people in rebel-held areas for six months.
Syria's ambassador to the UN Bassam Sabbagh told reporters on Thursday that his country had taken a "sovereign decision" on allowing the aid to continue.
- 'Comprehensive and unrestricted' -
That announcement followed the expiration on Monday of a mechanism that has allowed UN convoys to use the crossing to rebel areas without authorization from Damascus.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday that "there's been no crossings in Bab al-Hawa with United Nations humanitarian aid," adding that authorities were reviewing Syria's authorization.
"We're taking a look at... what exactly was expressed in the letter," he said.
"These things need to be studied carefully," he added, reiterating the UN's "commitment to delivering humanitarian assistance guided by humanitarian principles of non-interference, of impartiality."
The OCHA document seen by AFP also called for the need to "review" and "clarify" parts of Damascus' letter, saying the deliveries "must not infringe on the impartiality... neutrality, and independence of the United Nations' humanitarian operations."
Damascus regularly denounces the UN aid deliveries as a violation of its sovereignty, and major ally Moscow has been chipping away at the deal for years.
Russia on Tuesday vetoed a nine-month extension of the agreement, and then failed to muster enough votes to adopt a six-month extension.
The 15 UN Security Council members had been trying for days to find a compromise to extend the cross-border aid deal.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry.
"The scale of needs in Syria requires a comprehensive and unrestricted approach to humanitarian aid," the ICRC delegation in New York told AFP.
"We stand ready to support in ways that fall within our capabilities and with the consent of all parties involved."
abd/jh/caw/lb
Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS
Fri, July 14, 2023
The delivery of humanitarian aid through the Bab al-Hawa crossing has been stalled since Monday, when a 2014 UN deal expired (OMAR HAJ KADOUR)
The United Nations is concerned about "unacceptable conditions" set by Damascus for allowing aid to flow through its Bab al-Hawa crossing to rebel-held areas in northwest Syria, according to a document reviewed Friday by AFP.
The delivery of humanitarian aid through the crossing has been stalled since Monday, when a 2014 UN deal expired.
A letter this week from Syrian authorities allowing use of the border crossing between Turkey and Syria "contains two unacceptable conditions," according to a document sent to the UN Security Council from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA said it was concerned that the Syrian government had "stressed that the United Nations should not communicate with entities designated as 'terrorist.'"
The second condition it bridled at was that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) should "supervise and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid" in northwest Syria.
The UN says more than four million people in northwest Syria are in need of food, water, medicine and other essentials.
Through an arrangement that began in 2014, the UN largely delivers relief to northwest Syria via neighboring Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
Syria announced on Thursday that it would authorize the UN to use Bab al-Hawa to deliver vital humanitarian aid to millions of people in rebel-held areas for six months.
Syria's ambassador to the UN Bassam Sabbagh told reporters on Thursday that his country had taken a "sovereign decision" on allowing the aid to continue.
- 'Comprehensive and unrestricted' -
That announcement followed the expiration on Monday of a mechanism that has allowed UN convoys to use the crossing to rebel areas without authorization from Damascus.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday that "there's been no crossings in Bab al-Hawa with United Nations humanitarian aid," adding that authorities were reviewing Syria's authorization.
"We're taking a look at... what exactly was expressed in the letter," he said.
"These things need to be studied carefully," he added, reiterating the UN's "commitment to delivering humanitarian assistance guided by humanitarian principles of non-interference, of impartiality."
The OCHA document seen by AFP also called for the need to "review" and "clarify" parts of Damascus' letter, saying the deliveries "must not infringe on the impartiality... neutrality, and independence of the United Nations' humanitarian operations."
Damascus regularly denounces the UN aid deliveries as a violation of its sovereignty, and major ally Moscow has been chipping away at the deal for years.
Russia on Tuesday vetoed a nine-month extension of the agreement, and then failed to muster enough votes to adopt a six-month extension.
The 15 UN Security Council members had been trying for days to find a compromise to extend the cross-border aid deal.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry.
"The scale of needs in Syria requires a comprehensive and unrestricted approach to humanitarian aid," the ICRC delegation in New York told AFP.
"We stand ready to support in ways that fall within our capabilities and with the consent of all parties involved."
abd/jh/caw/lb
Thu, July 13, 2023
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Syrian government gave a green light Thursday for the United Nations to use a key crossing from Turkey to the country’s rebel-held northwest that was closed earlier this week, but it wants to take away U.N. control over aid deliveries to the region.
Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, said the government is granting the U.N. and its agencies “permission” to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing for six months starting Thursday, but he said it must be done “in full cooperation and coordination with the government.”
He told reporters the U.N. also should not communicate with “terrorist organizations” and their affiliates illegally controlling the Idlib region and must allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to run aid operations in “terrorist” controlled areas,
Sabbagh made the announcement after delivering letters to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council president with the government’s decision. It followed Tuesday’s failure of the Security Council to renew authorization of aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa, a U.N. operation that had been vital to helping a region of 4.1 million people.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “We’ve received the letter and are studying it for now.”
But Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, was clearly not impressed, saying Bab al-Hawa has “gold standard aid monitoring” yet now Syrian President Bashar Assad has said he will open it without U.N. monitoring.
“Control of this critical lifeline has been handed to the man responsible for the Syrian people’s suffering,” Woodward said. “The priority needs to be getting aid flowing again, fast, to the people who need it — and then getting certainty over its future. We will not hesitate to bring this back to the Security Council.”
The main insurgent group in northwest Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al Sham, whose origins were in al-Qaida. The group and other militants are a mix of home-grown fighters and foreign jihadis who began coming to Syria in 2011 after an initially peaceful uprising against Assad turned into an armed insurgency.
Many people in Idlib have been forced from their homes during the 12-year civil war, which has killed nearly a half million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Hundreds of thousands live in tent settlements and have relied on aid that comes through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.
The Security Council initially authorized aid deliveries in 2014 from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan through four crossing points into opposition-held areas in Syria. But over the years, Syria’s closest ally Russia, backed by China, has reduced the authorized crossings to just Bab al-Hawa from Turkey — and the mandates from a year to six months.
After the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged northwestern Syria and southern Turkey on Feb. 8,, Assad opened two additional crossing points from Turkey, at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai, to increase the flow of assistance to victim, and he extended their opening until Aug. 13.
The United Nations has also been using those crossings to deliver aid. But U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated after Tuesday’s vote that the secretary-general was trying to reopen Bab al-Hawa, which is closest to Idlib and where 85% of U.N. cross-border aid passed through.
Pressed on what “full cooperation and coordination with the government” will mean in practice, Sabbagh said that “I leave these details to the U.N. to explain,” saying the government wants Bab al-Hawa open. He said Syria also wants the U.N. to support the country’s development, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction of roads, power stations, mining activities.
On Tuesday, Syria’s close ally Russia vetoed a compromise resolution drafted by Switzerland and Brazil that would have extended the U.N. operation through Bab al-Hawa for nine months. That was supported by 13 of the 15 council members, as well as by the secretary-general and humanitarian organizations.
A rival Russian resolution that would have extended the aid deliveries only for six months but added new requirements failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes for approval and was only supported by Russia and China. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that if Moscow’s resolution wasn’t accepted it would not approve any compromise.
The Russian draft resolution included language supporting Assad’s government, which has for years delayed U.N.-led negotiations on a new constitution as a key step to elections and ending the conflict that began in 2011. It also referred to U.S. and European Union sanctions on Syria and asked the secretary-general to provide a special report on the impact of these measures in December.
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