UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The Syrian government on Thursday gave the green light to the United Nations to resume delivering humanitarian aid to rebel-held northwest Syria through the Bab crossing. al-Hawa from Turkey for six months, but said it had to be done “in full cooperation and coordination with the government.
Syria’s Ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said the UN should not communicate “with terrorist organizations and groups and their affiliated illegal administrative entities in northwestern Syria”. Instead, he said, the UN must allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to oversee aid distribution in areas controlled by ‘terrorist organisations’. .
Sabbagh made the announcement after delivering letters to Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the President of the Security Council with the government’s decision. This followed Tuesday’s failure of the Security Council to renew authorization for aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa, a UN operation that had been vital in helping a region of 4.1 million people. residents.
The main insurgent group in the northwestern province of Idlib is Hayat Tahrir al Sham, whose origins were in al-Qaeda.
Many people in Idlib were driven from their homes during the 12-year civil war, which killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Hundreds of thousands of people live in tent camps and depend on aid passing through the Bab al-Hawa border post.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has opened two additional crossing points from Turkey, at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai, to increase the flow of aid to victims of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that ravaged the north -western Syria and southern Turkey on February 8. their operation for three months in May until August 13, and the United Nations also used these crossings to deliver aid.
But UN 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 cross-border aid transits. of ONU.
The Syrian ambassador’s statement made it clear that his government wants to control the distribution of aid in Idlib, which was previously controlled by the UN and its humanitarian partners.
Insisting what “full cooperation and coordination with the government” will mean in practice, Sabbagh said that “I leave those details to the UN to explain”, saying the government wants Bab al -Hawa is open.
On Tuesday, Russia, a close ally of Syria, vetoed a compromise resolution drafted by Switzerland and Brazil that would have extended the UN operation via Bab al-Hawa by nine months. This was supported by 13 of the 15 board members, as well as the general secretary and the aid organisations.
A rival Russian resolution that would have only extended aid deliveries by six months, but added new demands, failed to win the minimum nine ‘yes’ votes for approval and was only backed by the Russia and China. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council that if Moscow’s resolution was not accepted, he would not approve of any compromise.
The Russian draft resolution included language supporting Assad’s government, which for years delayed UN-led negotiations on a new constitution as a key step for elections and an end to the conflict that began in 2011. He also referred to the United States and European Union sanctions against Syria and asked the Secretary General to provide a special report on the impact of these measures in December.
The Security Council initially authorized in 2014 aid deliveries from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan through four crossing points to opposition-held areas in Syria. But over the years, Russia, backed by China, has reduced authorized crossings to just Bab al-Hawa from Turkey – and terms from one year to six months.