This photo taken on December 12, 2019 shows a view of tents at a camp for displaced Syrians at Khirbet al-Joz in the west of the northwestern Idlib province near the border with Turkey, where residents survive mostly on aid and barely have enough money to buy food and clothes to keep warm.AAREF WATAD/AFP/Getty Images
The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Friday limiting the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria to just two crossing points from Turkey to the mainly rebel-held northwest as Russia demanded — a vote which potentially cuts off assistance from Iraq to over one million Syrians in the northeast.
The divided 15-member council was facing Friday’s expiration of its mandate to deliver aid across borders, and the possibility of a halt to all cross-border aid. The U.N. humanitarian office says it has been supporting 4 million Syrians — 2.7 million in the northwest and 1.3 million in the northeast.
The vote was 11-0 with four abstentions: Russia, China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Since 2014, the Security Council has authorized the delivery of aid on a yearly basis through four border crossings — Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa in Turkey, Al Yarubiyah in Iraq, and Al-Ramtha in Jordan.
Germany, Belgium and Kuwait, backed by the U.S., Britain, France and other council nations initially wanted to add a new crossing point and extend the mandate for a year.
But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said last month that cross-border aid was meant to be a temporary response to the eight-year Syrian conflict and the situation on the ground has changed.
He said the Jordan crossing point hasn’t been used “for a lengthy period of time” and the volume through the Iraqi crossing “is insignificant … and could be done from Syria” so only the Turkish crossing points are needed.
The Western nations and others insisted, however, that the Iraqi crossing point was also critical, especially for the delivery of medicine and surgical supplies to the northeast.
Russia joined the war in 2015, when the Syrian military appeared close to collapse. Since then, and mainly because of Russia’s blanket air support, the Syrian government has largely won the civil war militarily, and has retaken control of most of the country from rebel fighters.
Syrian government forces recently launched an offensive in northwest Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold, which is dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants and is also home to 3 million civilians. The U.N. has warned of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe along the Turkish border.
In the northeast, Syrian Kurds established an autonomous zone in 2012 and were U.S. partners on the ground in fighting the Islamic State extremist group. Turkey launched an offensive in October against Syrian Kurdish militants, which drew widespread international criticism. The U.S. was criticized for abandoning its Kurdish allies. Two ceasefires brokered by the U.S. and Russia required Kurdish forces to withdraw from the Turkish border and for Turkey to halt its offensive.
At the United Nations, the cross-border issue initially came to a head on Dec. 20.
Germany, Belgium and Kuwait, who were drafting the resolution to renew cross-border deliveries, were willing to compromise on the two crossings in Turkey and one in Iraq, and to meet another Russian demand for cross-border authorization to be limited to just six months. But diplomats said Russia, Syria’s closest ally, refused to budge.
Russia and China vetoed the resolution that would authorize deliveries through three crossings, which was supported by 13 of the 15 Security Council members.
A rival resolution sponsored by Russia and China which would have authorized only two crossing points in Turkey. It was defeated because it failed to get the required nine “yes” votes for adoption.
Negotiations by Security Council experts and four meetings of the five veto-wielding permanent members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — failed to find a compromise, diplomats said.
This week, Germany and Belgium circulated a revised draft still calling for three crossing points. Russia circulated an amended draft still calling for two Turkish crossings.
Faced with Friday’s deadline and the possibility of cutting off all cross-border aid, Germany and Belgium revised their draft resolution again on Friday to limit deliveries to just the two Turkish crossing points.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Karen Pierce said it was “deeply regrettable” that the resolution authorizing aid deliveries through four border crossings which Russia allowed to pass for five years has “now been politicized” by Moscow.
“Two crossings for six months is an inadequate response to the situation on the ground,” she said. “Those who have been most active in limiting the number of crossings and the length of time the crossings can be used, they bear the responsibility for what happens to those people in the northeast.”
According to the U.N., 40 per cent of all medical, surgical and health supplies to the northeast along with water and sanitation supplies are delivered through the Al Yarubiyah crossing point in Iraq.
Pierce said if the Syrian government takes over these deliveries, aid must be given out based on U.N. humanitarian principles of need — not political affiliation or support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
She said the Security Council must keep asking for information from the United Nations, relief organizations and others on the ground “about what is actually happening to those Syrian communities who this aid would previously have reached.”
“And if we find those communities are suffering even more, then to call that out in the council,” Pierce said.
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council in November that the U.N. provided 1.1 million people with food through cross-border deliveries in October, double the number in January.
“There is no alternative to the cross-border operation,” Lowcock said. “There is no Plan B.”