ALBAWABA - The United Nations Security Council will be holding a meeting on Monday to renew permission for the UN to deliver humanitarian aid to northwest parts of Syria which are controlled by the opposition.
Through the Syrian-Turkish borders, and for nearly a decade, the United Nations has been using the Bab Al-Hawa crossing between Turkey and Syria to reach civilians and have humanitarian aid delivered to those in need. However, it is feared that Russia, al-Assad regime's key backer, will veto the security council's resolution.
The UK’s special envoy for Syria, Ann Snow, said a longer mandate is needed to ensure the effectiveness of the response and avoid being “locked into an endless cycle of costly short-term agreements and pre-positioning supplies in case of abrupt closure” Al-Jazeera reported.
In 2014, the UN released its original mandate allowing the passage of aid to Syria through four crossings and has been annually renewable ever since. However, Russia has been threatening to obstruct the renewal of the resolution every year since 2020.
The head of the Syria Civil Defence, Raed al-Saleh, said: “The primary responsibility of the Security Council is to uphold global peace and security, not to hinder or control the distribution of life-saving aid, especially when there exists a legal framework that grants the United Nations the authority to deliver assistance without relying solely on the Security Council’s approval,”.
Donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have quietly developed options that allow them to skip the UN entirely and transfer money directly to NGOs operating in Syria.
