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UN fails for 2nd time to agree on Syria aid from Turkey UN approves aid to Syria’s rebel area through 1 crossing
(about 20 hours later)
UNITED NATIONS — A divided U.N. Security Council failed for a second time Friday to agree on extending humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest from Turkey as the current U.N. mandate was ending, leaving nearly 3 million people at risk of losing aid. UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Saturday authorizing humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest from Turkey through just one crossing point, a victory for Russia in cutting another crossing that the U.N. and aid groups have called critical.
Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution backed by the 13 other council members that would have maintained two crossing points from Turkey for six months. A Russian-drafted resolution that would have authorized just one border crossing for a year failed to receive the minimum nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council, with only four countries voting in favor while seven voted against and four abstained. Russia, Syria’s most important ally, argued that aid should be delivered from within the country across conflict lines and just one crossing point is needed.
Diplomats said Germany and Belgium, who insist two crossings are critical especially with the first COVID-19 case just reported in Syria’s northwest, circulated a new text. That resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, would extend the mandate through the Bab al-Hawa crossing for a year and the mandate for the Bab al-Salam crossing — which Russia wants to eliminate — for three months to wind up its activities. The U.N. and humanitarian groups argued unsuccessfully — along with the vast majority of the U.N. Security Council — that two crossing points were essential to get aid to the 2.8 million needy people in the northwest, especially with the first case of COVID-19 recently reported in the region.
Council members continued discussions Friday night and diplomats said a meeting was possible Saturday to vote on the German-Belgium draft as well as likely Russian amendments. The vote was 12-0, with Russia, China and the Dominican Republic abstaining — Russia most likely because two amendments it proposed were rejected.
Germann Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said the Russian vote should be “a last-minute wake-up call” for Security Council members to resolve their differences. He said Germany, which holds the rotating council presidency, was “ready to work around the clock,” and he urged council members to think of the millions of Syrian waiting for them “to decide their fate.” Saturday’s vote capped a week of high-stakes rivalry between Russia and China, and the 13 other council members who voted twice to maintain the two crossings from Turkey that were in operation until their mandate ended Friday.
“To leave this weekend without a solution would send a signal of disappointment and despair to the people in the region,” Heusgen said,. Both times, Russia and China vetoed the resolutions — the 15th and 16th veto by Russia of a Syria resolution since the conflict began in 2011 and the ninth and 10th by China.
The actions Friday capped a week of high-stakes rivalry over cross-border aid. Germany and Belgium, which sponsored the widely supported resolutions for two crossing points, were forced to back down by the threat of another Russian veto, and their latest draft authorized only the single crossing point from Turkey for a year.
Russia, Syria’s closest ally, has argued that aid should be delivered from within Syria across conflict lines. But the U.N. and humanitarian groups say aid for 2.8 million needy people in the northwest can’t get in that way. Ahead of the vote, Physicians for Human Rights’ Policy Director Susannah Sirkin said Russia and China’s “cynical and cruel maneuvering” to cut off life-saving aid using their veto power and seeking to close one critical border crossing “is one more tragic example of the broken U.N. humanitarian system, and a defamation of its Charter.”
The initial German-Belgium resolution authorizing two crossings for one year won support from 13 of the 15 council members on Tuesday but was vetoed by Russia and China. Russia, in two resolutions this week that failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes needed for adoption, raised the issue of U.S. and European Union sanctions against Syria and their negative impact on Syria’s humanitarian situation. The U.S. and EU vehemently objected to this allegation, saying their sanctions provide humanitarian exemptions.
A Russian draft resolution authorizing one crossing for six months failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes Wednesday. And a similar Russian amendment to the latest German-Belgium resolution was dramatically rejected Thursday, getting only two “yes” votes — from Russia and China. The amendment proposed by Russia to the latest draft resolution asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to include information in his reports to the council every 60 days on the “direct and indirect humanitarian impact of unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria.”
That amendment was soundly defeated with just five countries voting in favor, six against and four abstentions, diplomats said.
Russia and China were joined by Vietnam, South Africa and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in voting “yes” while the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia voted “no,” the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the vote has not yet been publicly released.
Another proposed Russia amendment “recognizing improvement in cross-line deliveries” and “encouraging all relevant parties to further increase cross-line humanitarian operations to all parts of Syria” was also defeated.
A Chinese amendment that would recognize measures proposed by Guterres concerning the response to “the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to conflict-affected areas, in particular his appeal for an immediate global cease-fire” also failed.
In January, Russia scored a victory for Syria, using its veto threat to force the Security Council to adopt a resolution reducing the number of crossing points for aid deliveries from four to two, from Turkey to the northwest. It also cut in half the yearlong mandate that had been in place since cross-border deliveries began in 2014 to six months.In January, Russia scored a victory for Syria, using its veto threat to force the Security Council to adopt a resolution reducing the number of crossing points for aid deliveries from four to two, from Turkey to the northwest. It also cut in half the yearlong mandate that had been in place since cross-border deliveries began in 2014 to six months.
Russia has insisted from the beginning of negotiations that it wanted to cut back aid deliveries to a single crossing point for six months. Germany and Belgium wanted to maintain the two crossing points — Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam — for a year.
After the latest Russian veto on Friday, Germany and Belgium circulated a draft resolution to extend the mandate through the Bab al-Hawa crossing for a year and the mandate for the Bab al-Salam crossing — which Russia wanted to eliminate — for three months to wind up its activities.
But Russia objected to even three months, so it was eliminated, diplomats said.
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft tweeted Friday: “Russia & China are using politics to prop up the Assad regime while more than 3 million people are in desperate need of aid. We cannot allow the Bab al-Salaam border crossing, where 30 percent of UNICEF’s aid enters Syria, to close. The lives of 500,000 children are at risk.”U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft tweeted Friday: “Russia & China are using politics to prop up the Assad regime while more than 3 million people are in desperate need of aid. We cannot allow the Bab al-Salaam border crossing, where 30 percent of UNICEF’s aid enters Syria, to close. The lives of 500,000 children are at risk.”
The president of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, said reducing aid deliveries to just one crossing point “would cut essential health supplies to one million people, and leave the U.N. unable to scale up in response both to COVID-19 and deteriorating food security.” Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, tweeted Thursday that the Bab Al-Hawa crossing “accounts for more than 85% of total volume of operations.”
“Today is yet another example of the age of impunity, where two countries can veto with full knowledge, but utter disregard, for the impact it will have on civilian lives, all against the backdrop of an unprecedented and devastating global pandemic,” Miliband said. “We categorically reject claims that Russia wants to stop humanitarian deliveries to the Syrian population in need,” he wrote.
Without waiting for Friday’s announcement of the result of voting on the German-Belgium resolution and signaling its intent to use its veto, Russia announced late Thursday that it had circulated a new resolution that would authorize just one crossing from Turkey for a year. He urged Western nations to support the Russian draft authorizing only the Bab Al-Hawa crossing warning that if they blocked it — which they did on Friday — “they will be responsible for the consequences.”
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, tweeted that Bab Al-Hawa “accounts for more than 85% of total volume of operations.”
“We categorically reject claims that Russia wants to stop humanitarian deliveries to the Syrian population in need,” he wrote, urging Western nations to “seize this opportunity” and support the Russian draft which adapts “to the situation on the ground.”
“If they block our compromise proposal they will be responsible for the consequences,” the Russian envoy said.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.