(United Nations) The UN’s cross-border humanitarian aid mechanism, vital for millions of people in rebel areas in Syria, expired on Monday, failing a Security Council vote to extend it at this stage.
The 15 members of the Security Council have been trying for days to find a compromise to extend this mechanism which allows food, water or medicine to be sent from Turkey, without authorization from Damascus, to the inhabitants of northwestern Syria.
The vote scheduled first Friday, then Monday was again postponed to Tuesday morning, said Monday evening the British presidency of the Security Council.
While humanitarian convoys do not cross the border at night, operations ended Monday in uncertainty. And with the time difference, even if a positive vote took place Tuesday morning in New York, they will not be able to resume on the ground Tuesday morning.
“The key is to find common ground,” said British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward, who chairs the council in July, earlier in the day.
“We want to do everything possible for the 4.1 million Syrians who desperately need help,” added the diplomat, who a few days ago denounced the use of humanitarian aid “as currency of exchange”.
An accusation that aimed, without naming it, Russia.
The mechanism created in 2014 allows the UN to deliver humanitarian aid to the populations of the rebel areas in northwestern Syria, without authorization from the Syrian government, which regularly denounces a violation of its sovereignty.
Initially, it provided for four crossing points, but after years of pressure in particular from Moscow, an ally of the Syrian regime, only the Bab al-Hawa post remained operational, and its authorization was reduced to six months renewable, complicating planning for humanitarian aid.
Two passages authorized by Damascus
According to several diplomatic sources, the resolution prepared last week by Switzerland and Brazil aimed for a one-year extension, demanded by humanitarian workers.
But Russia, which had vetoed a one-year extension in July 2022, insisted on only six months, according to these same sources.
Switzerland and Brazil have now put a nine-month proposal on the table, a diplomatic source told AFP.
Last week, the head of the United Nations for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, once again pleaded for the opening of the maximum possible crossing points, for at least 12 months.
“It is intolerable for the people of the northwest and for the brave souls who come to their aid to go through these ups and downs every six months,” he said, noting that aid agencies were notably obliged each time to pre-position aid in Syria in case access is closed.
UN says four million people in northwestern Syria, mostly women and children, need humanitarian assistance to survive after years of conflict, economic shocks, disease outbreaks and poverty growing aggravated by devastating earthquakes.
Despite the expiration of the UN mechanism, at least temporarily, two other crossing points are operational, although they are less used than Bab al-Hawa.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had indeed directly authorized their opening after the February earthquakes, but this authorization expires in mid-August.
“I have great hopes that they will continue to be renewed, I see no reason why not,” commented Mr. Griffiths, who had met President Assad in Damascus at the end of June, last week.
Since the February 6 earthquakes, more than 3,700 UN aid trucks have passed through the three crossings, according to the UN. The vast majority passed through Bab al-Hawa, including 79 on Monday.