BEIRUT (AP) — The United Nations agency responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid has described conditions imposed by the Syrian government on Turkish aid deliveries to northwest Syria as “unacceptable.”
The future delivery of aid across Syria’s northern border was called into question on Tuesday after the UN Security Council was unable to agree on one of two proposals competition to extend the mandate for delivering aid from Turkey through the Bab al Hawa border post.
Two days later, Syria’s ambassador to the UN said Damascus would give voluntary permission to the UN to use the crossing for six months, on the condition that the delivery of aid is made. “in full cooperation and coordination with the government”, that the UN would not. communicate with “terrorist organizations” and their affiliates, and that the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent would carry out relief operations.
In a letter sent to the Security Council on Friday, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said the Syrian proposal qualified two of those conditions ” unacceptable” to conduct “principled humanitarian operations”.
The ban on communicating with groups considered “terrorist” by the Syrian government would prevent the UN and partner organizations distributing aid from engaging “with relevant state and non-state parties as operationally necessary to conduct safe and unhindered humanitarian operations,” the letter read. .
Stipulating that aid deliveries must be overseen by the Red Cross or Red Crescent is “neither compatible with the independence of the United Nations nor practical”, since these organizations “do not have a presence in the northwest of Syria,” he said.
The letter also noted that the Syrian government’s demand that aid deliveries be made in “full cooperation and coordination” with Damascus required “revision” and that the aid delivery mechanism should not “infringe impartiality…, neutrality and independence”. United Nations humanitarian operations.
The delivery of aid to the rebel-held enclave in the northwest has been a permanent point of contention during Syria’s 12-year uprising that has turned into a civil war.
The Syrian government of Bashar Assad and its ally, Russia, which is a member of the Security Council, want all aid deliveries to pass through Damascus. Opponents of Assad and aid organizations say this could lead to aid being diverted from the vulnerable population in the northwest.
Emma Beals, a non-resident researcher at the Middle East Institute who has studied the delivery of aid, said people living in northwest Syria “face grave risks” if the Humanitarian aid depends on the authorization of Damascus.
“The regime has used denial of aid and attacks on aid workers as a military strategy for twelve years,” she said.
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, had pushed the council to reduce authorized stints to just one – Bab al-Hawa – and terms from one year to six months.
After a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Syria and Turkey in February, Assad opened two additional crossings from Turkey, at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai, to increase the flow of assistance to victims, then extended their opening until August 1. 13. However, in practice most aid continued to pass through Bab al Hawa.
A limited amount of UN aid entered the opposition-held northwest across battle lines from government-held areas.
After the February earthquake, aid convoys were blocked from entering Idlib province from government-controlled areas by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, originally an offshoot of Al-Qaida, which dominates the region. The group accused Assad of wanting “to benefit from the aid intended for the victims of the earthquake”.
In June, in an apparent attempt to convince Russia to allow aid deliveries to expand through Bab al-Hawa, the group allowed a shipment to cross from a government-controlled area in Aleppo province to Idlib.
___
Associated Press writer Edith Lederer in New York contributed to this report.