UN’s Gutteres backs extending aid route to Syria despite Moscow’s opposition
As COVID-19 threatens to dry up NGO aid to Syria, Russia claims extension infringes on regime’s sovereignty
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports extending a cross-border program to bring humanitarian aid over the border from Turkey to Syria, according to a Security Council report released Wednesday.
The program is slated to expire July 10, but Germany and Belgium penned a request for the Security Council to extend it. Russia and China said the cross-border route of aid infringes on Syria’s sovereignty.
Aid to Syria is in danger, Guterres said, as the COVID-19 crisis dries up NGO funds and assistance. He urged for this aid to come both through the Syrian-Turkish border and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The delivery of humanitarian aid over the next year to Syria’s northwestern region, which includes the war-torn Idlib area, requires Bab al-Salaam and Bab al-Hawa border crossings remain open, the report said.
“The cross-border operation is a lifeline for millions of civilians whom the United Nations cannot reach by other means,” he wrote.
“Cross-line assistance is currently not a viable alternative and a sustained, large-scale cross-border response will continue to be necessary to meet the enormous humanitarian needs in the northwest,” Guterres said, referring to the possibility Moscow raised of sending aid through Damascus alone.
Such aid would be a lifeline to Assad, whom the US has placed under sanctions, along with other leading Syrian government officials.
The program was to be renewed in a January vote, but Russian pressure limited this to six months.
Source: i24NEWS – UN’s Gutteres backs extending aid route to Syria despite Moscow’s opposition