By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – UN Security Council approval for aid deliveries to several million people in rebel-held Syria from Turkey will expire on Monday as council members scramble to convince Russia to extend the massive UN operation for more than six months.
In 2022 and 2020, the operation’s mandate expired, but was renewed a day later. Authorization is needed because the Syrian authorities have not given consent to the operation, which has been providing aid including food, medicine and shelter since 2014.
The Security Council, composed of 15 members, had negotiated a text, drafted by Switzerland and Brazil, to allow the UN operation to continue to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing point for 12 months. But Russia presented a competing text on Friday proposing six months.
Some diplomats said they hoped the council would agree on a text and vote on Tuesday. To pass, a resolution must receive at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes from Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council last month: “A 12-month clearance allows us and our partners to achieve better humanitarian results in the months coming. It’s as simple as that.
Griffiths said the UN’s $5.4 billion aid appeal for Syria for 2023 is the largest in the world, but is less than 12% funded.
Russia argues that the UN aid operation violates Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It says more aid should be flown in from within the country, raising fears among the opposition that food and other aid could fall under government control.
The Security Council initially authorized aid deliveries in 2014 to opposition-held areas in Syria from Iraq, Jordan and two points in Turkey. But Russia and China have reduced this to a single Turkish border point.
A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 led to civil war, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington backing the opposition. Millions of people have fled Syria and millions are internally displaced.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Stephen Coates)