Syria says UN can deliver aid through shuttered Turkish crossing for 6 months (updated)

BAB

13/07/2023 21:50

(New throughout, adds details from Syrian letter, on Security
Council efforts and background on situation in Syria)
    By Michelle Nichols
       UNITED NATIONS, July 13 (Reuters) - The Syrian
government on Thursday said the United Nations could use a
border crossing from Turkey to continue delivering aid to
northwest Syria for another six months after the Security
Council failed to renew its authorization for the operation.
    The U.N. aid deliveries would have to be "in full
cooperation and coordination with the Syrian Government",
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh wrote in a letter on
Thursday to the Security Council, seen by Reuters.
    U.N. Security Council approval for the Turkish-based aid
operation delivering help to several million people in
rebel-held northwest Syria expired on Monday as members
struggled to convince Russia to extend it for more than six
months.
        Russia vetoed a nine-month authorization renewal at the
U.N. Security Council on Tuesday and then failed in its own bid
for a six-month extension of the operation, which has been
delivering aid including food, medicine and shelter since 2014. 
  
    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had pushed for a
12-month renewal. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the
Syrian letter had been received and the United Nations was
studying it.
    Security Council authorization was needed because the Syrian
government did not agree to the U.N. operation. It initially
authorized aid deliveries in 2014 into opposition-held areas of
Syria from Iraq, Jordan and two points in Turkey. But Russia and
China whittled that down to just one from Turkey: Bab al-Hawa. 
        Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said
there was now no need for the council to vote on any
authorization for cross-border aid deliveries and that avenue
was "officially dead" now that the Syrian government had given
its own approval. 
  
        "Every effort to put another draft to vote will
constitute nothing but political games," he posted on Twitter. 
  
         Russia and Syria have argued that the operation
violates Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. They say
more aid should be delivered from inside the country, raising
opposition fears food and other aid would fall under government
control.
  
    "The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic has taken the
sovereign decision to grant the United Nations and its
specialized agencies permission to use Bab al-Hawa crossing,"
Sabbagh wrote. 
        They would be allowed "to deliver humanitarian aid to
civilians in need in northwest Syria, in full cooperation and
coordination with the Syrian Government, for a period of six
months, starting from July 13, 2023," he said. 
  
    After an earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey
and Syria in February, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allowed
the United Nations to use an additional two border crossings
from Turkey to dispatch aid. That approval expires on Aug. 13.
    A violent crackdown by Assad on peaceful pro-democracy
protesters in 2011 led to a civil war, with Moscow backing Assad
and Washington supporting the opposition. Millions of people
have fled Syria with millions more internally displaced.
Fighting has abated with Assad back in control of most of Syria.

 (Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Kanishka Singh)
 ((michelle.nichols@tr.com; Twitter: @michellenichols))