After the UN split, Syria’s lifeline of cross-border assistance may be cut off.

Following the failure of the Security Council to approve two resolutions authorizing cross-border humanitarian delivery to millions of civilians living in rebel-held northwest Syria, Russia has threatened to halt the deliveries.

A nine-month extension for the use of the Bab al-Hawa crossing was supported by 13 of the 15 other council members, except for Russia, a government supporter of Syria.

However, it was unable to get enough support for its six-month plan at that point.

Russia was charged with “an act of utter cruelty” by the US.

Every month, hundreds of trucks carrying assistance for 2.7 million people who depend on it for food, shelter, and medical treatment travel via Bab al-Hawa in Turkey.

Since a terrible earthquake that killed more than 4,500 people and uprooted 50,000 families in the area in February, the lifeline has taken on even more significance.

The UN will be permitted to utilize two more border crossings that were opened with the permission of the Syrian government after the earthquake until August 13 despite the Security Council resolution forcing it to immediately suspend humanitarian delivery via Bab al-Hawa.

In order to guarantee that the immediate demands for relief would be addressed, the UN said its agencies had also pre-positioned goods on the ground in northern Syria.

Approximately 4.5 million people, almost three-quarters of them are women and children, are besieged in northwestern Syria, the last bastion of the rebel forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the terrorist organizations.
In 2014, the Security Council granted permission for the UN to transfer supplies across borders into parts of Syria that the government did not control.

However, in 2020, supplies via Jordan and Iraq as well as the Bab al-Salameh border with Turkey were halted thanks to the exercise of Russia and China’s veto power as permanent council members.

The supplies should enter the front lines via area under government control, they said, since the operation violated Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The sole remaining route for the UN to contact civilians in the north-west was Bab al-Hawa.

Since then, the Security Council has reauthorized its use every six to twelve months after a series of last-minute agreements made by Russia and Western nations, who have backed the Syrian opposition throughout the conflict.

Another compromise resolution proposed by Brazil and Switzerland that would have prolonged the cross-border mechanism for nine months, spanning the winter, and enabling aid organizations to better organize their activities was blocked on Tuesday by Russia using its veto to do so. With the exception of China, who abstained, every other member of the council voted in favor.

Only China and Russia supported the Russian motion for a six-month extension. Ten members abstained, while the US, UK, and France voted against it.

Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of Russia, told the council before the second vote that “if our draft is not supported, then we can just go ahead and close down the cross-border mechanism.”

We won’t accept the technical rollover for any amount of time.

His American colleague, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described Russia’s veto as a “sad moment for the Syrian people” and said it was “my way or the highway” on the side of Moscow.

“We cannot tolerate this impediment. We must continue in this. The Syrian people depend on us, therefore we must all compel Russia to reopen negotiations in good faith, she said.

Despite being “disappointed” that the council members were unable to come to a consensus, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres encouraged them to “redouble their efforts to support the continued delivery of cross-border assistance to millions of people in dire need.”

“It defies reason and principle that Security Council members would vote to not maintain all avenues of aid access for vulnerable Syrians at this time,” International Rescue Committee CEO David Miliband said in response to Russia’s veto.