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Syria: UN cross-border aid authorization expires

2020-07-11T08:34:59.711Z


The UN authorization, which has allowed cross-border aid to Syria since 2014, expired on Friday without the deeply divided Security Council being able to extend this vital humanitarian assistance for millions of people. After five polls since Tuesday, all in vain with twice a double veto of Russia and China on their proposals, Germany and Belgium have embarked on a final initiative to save this de...


The UN authorization, which has allowed cross-border aid to Syria since 2014, expired on Friday without the deeply divided Security Council being able to extend this vital humanitarian assistance for millions of people. After five polls since Tuesday, all in vain with twice a double veto of Russia and China on their proposals, Germany and Belgium have embarked on a final initiative to save this device with a new vote hoped this weekend . But most likely, diplomats told AFP on condition of Russia, which had already imposed a sharp reduction in this mechanism in January, and which wants to further reduce it.

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The UN's cross-border authorization allows aid to be sent to the Syrian population without the approval of Damascus. The device was based until Friday on two entry points in north-western Syria, on the Turkish border: at Bab al-Salam, leading to the Aleppo region, and at Bab al-Hawa, serving the insurgent region of Idleb where almost four million Syrians live. However, Russia judges that the UN's cross-border authorization violates the sovereignty of its Syrian ally. She wants the abolition of the Bab al-Salam entry point, arguing that it is much less used than that of Bab al-Hawa and that aid subject to Damascus control can be increased for the Aleppo region.

Westerners reject these arguments. They argue that there is no credible alternative and argue that the Syrian bureaucracy and politics are preventing an efficient flow of aid to areas that remain out of the Syrian regime's control. On Wednesday, the United States said that the maintenance of two access points in Syria represented a "red line" . But several diplomats told AFP on Friday that the solution now sought by Germany and Belgium rests on maintaining access to Bab al-Hawa with the abandonment of that of Bab al-Salam.

"A dark day"

In January, Moscow, after a veto at the end of December, had the device reduced from four to two border crossing points and for six months, while the authorization was renewed annually since its creation. This week, Russia and China once again used their veto power as permanent members on Tuesday and Friday, accused by NGOs and Western countries, of abusing and politicizing a humanitarian issue. All the Russian counter-projects, during the votes, did not exceed four votes in their favor. To be adopted, a resolution must win a minimum of nine votes out of fifteen, without a vote against a permanent member of the Security Council.

"We are ready to work 24 hours a day and call on others to think of the millions of people in Syria who are waiting for the Security Council to decide their fate," the German ambassador to the UN said in a statement on Friday evening. , Christoph Heusgen, president in July of the highest UN body. Along with Belgium, another non-permanent member of the Council, Germany is in charge of the humanitarian aspect of the Syrian dossier at the UN. The double veto Friday of Moscow and Beijing inflicted on Berlin and Brussels was the sixteenth for Russia and the tenth for China on a text linked to Syria since the outbreak of the war in 2011.

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For the UN, maintaining as many crossing points as possible was crucial, especially in the face of the risk of the Covid-19 pandemic that is spreading across the region. In June, the secretary general of the UN, Antonio Guterres, had asked in a report the extension of the cross-border device for one year by including at least the two access points that were used until Friday. After the new Russian-Chinese double veto, the NGOs strongly criticized in unison the inability of the Security Council to reach agreement. David Miliband, president of the NGO International Rescue Committee, denounced "a dark day" for the Syrians and a "shame" . "Russia and its opponents to the Council see these exchanges as a way to gain political points against each other, but it is not a game," criticized Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-07-11

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