UN gives in to Russia and extends Syria aid mission for 6 months


WASHINGTON — World powers agreed on Tuesday to continue a United Nations aid mission in northwest Syria for another six months, bowing to a deadline demanded by Russia that will, for now, avoid stopping vital deliveries for an estimated four million people living in the midst of an 11-year civil war.

A few days earlier, Russia had vetoed a UN Security Council plan to keep the humanitarian aid corridor from Bab al-Hawa on the Turkish border to Idlib province open for a year more. In response, Western diplomats then rejected a Russian proposal to instead allow the mission to stay for six months, calling it too short and unacceptable, given that food, medicine and other supplies would be cut off in the middle of winter, when help is most needed.

But with little alternative to help war-weary Syrians – more than a million of whom lived in tents during the conflict that began in 2011 – the council has embraced the six-month mission as officials mull over how to help after the end.

“What is most important today is that the Council, with this resolution, keeps the cross-border mechanism open and operational – that humanitarian aid continues to reach those in need,” said the Irish Ambassador to the United Nations, Geraldine Byrne Nason.

Ireland and Norway have drawn up a compromise proposal that respects Russia’s six-month deadline but also allows for the possibility of extending the aid mission for another six months with a new vote after it expires in January.

Tuesday’s vote also showed the limits of the Western drive to contain Russian power in the world, as the United States and other nations have sought since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February. Twelve members of the council approved the new measure, and none opposed it, although the United States, Britain and France abstained from voting.

“The world is not limited by Western countries,” said Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, “and it’s time you got used to respecting the interests of other states – from first and foremost, only those states that are directly affected by the decisions of the Security Council.

Russia is a major benefactor of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria during the war and has used its veto power in the UN Security Council to help close three more humanitarian corridors to Syria in 2020. Moscow has long argued that the UN mission is violating Syria. sovereignty, and that it should be up to Mr. al-Assad to decide how and where international aid is channeled.

China’s Deputy Ambassador Dai Bing on Tuesday echoed Moscow’s demands that “humanitarian aid to Syria must respect Syria’s sovereignty and the property of the Syrian government.”

UN officials have described the Bab al-Hawa road as the gateway to the world’s largest humanitarian aid operation, which has delivered more than 56,000 truckloads of vital supplies to Idlib province , in northwest Syria, since 2014. Aid groups estimate that 70% of the Syrian population lacks a reliable food supply.

Russian diplomats have also warned that aid provided to Idlib – the last major rebel enclave in Syria and an area that has also become a haven for al-Qaeda-linked extremists – was susceptible to capture by terror groups.

Russia agreed last year to keep Bab al-Hawa open after intense negotiations with the United States, on the understanding that the UN mission’s mandate would expire on Sunday. But in recent months, Russia had signaled that it would refuse to continue the annual process of one-year extensions.

“We will continue to monitor progress and implement the resolution we passed today to decide the ultimate fate,” Polyanskiy said.

Richard M. Mills, the deputy UN envoy, said Moscow’s support for Mr. al-Assad was all the more desperate for Syrians, given the food shortages caused by limited wheat exports and oil from Russia and Ukraine.

“Russia knows that some of the recent urgent needs in Syria are a direct result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the shocks that brutal invasion has caused to food systems in Syria and around the world,” Mills said. . “And the simple truth is that Russia doesn’t care.”