U.N. reauthorizes Turkish aid route into Syria's rebel-held northwest

The U.N. Security Council agreed to another six-month entension for cross-border humanitarian aid deliveries to more than 4 million Syrians in the rebel-held northwest.

The unanimous vote by the 15-nation council on Monday to approve a resolution co-sponsored by Brazil and Switzerland means aid deliveries can continue until July 10 through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey and northern Syria.

The border crossing – which allows the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations to provide food, medicine and other basic items to 4.1 million mainly displaced inhabitants of Syria's northwest Idlib province – briefly shut down at midnight on Sunday when its authorization expired.

"We welcome today's unanimous adoption by the Security Council," Swiss Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl told the council on behalf of her country and Brazil.

"It comes at a time when the 4.1 million people in need of assistance in northwest Syria are facing harsh winter conditions," she said. "This resolution allows humanitarian actors, particularly the United Nations and its agencies, to continue to reach those in need in a coordinated and carefully monitored manner. It extends this crucial lifeline to the civilian population in northwest Syria whose needs are greater than ever."

Russia, Syria's main ally, has used its veto power as one of the council's five permanent members to block the use of three other aid routes and reduced the use of this last border crossing to six month renewal periods, down from a year – essentially weaponizing the delivery of international humanitarian aid. The other four permanent members are Britain, China, France and the United States.

Monday's vote is "an important short-term win, said Jesse Marks, a Refugees International senior advocate for the Middle East, but the decision has its shortcomings.

"The humanitarian community has called time and again for this window to be expanded to the minimum of 12 months so that humanitarian actors have sufficient time to plan for and effectively respond to the region’s expanding needs. Six months is simply not enough," said Marks.

"These shortcomings have emerged because Russia and China continue to hold resolution hostage to exact political gains. They do so at the expense of Syrians in need of lifesaving assistance," he said. "The politicization of cross-border aid must end."

'An indispensable lifeline'

When aid deliveries began in 2014, three years into Syria's brutal conflict, the council originally approved four border crossings: two in Turkey at Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam; one at Al Yarubiyah in Iraq; and one at Al-Ramtha in Jordan.

The council gave in to Russia’s demand in Jan. 2020 that it reduce cross-border aid to just the two Turkish crossings. The Bab al-Salam crossing served as the humanitarian gateway to northern Aleppo and an estimated 300,000 vulnerable Syrians living there who depended on U.N.-authorized aid deliveries.

The council then voted in July 2020 to constrict cross-border aid for Syrians living in areas still beyond Syrian President Bashar Assad's control to just the one Turkish crossing at Bab al-Hawa, bowing to demands by Russia, which, backed by China and Iran, has long wanted to further choke off aid to Syria's rebels.

The council's decision keeps open "an indispensable lifeline" at Bab al-Hawa, Syria’s last non-government controlled border crossing for humanitarian aid, said Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

"The decision to confirm the extension of that authorization for an additional six months comes as humanitarian needs have reached the highest levels since the start of the conflict in 2011, with people in Syria grappling with a harsh winter and a cholera outbreak," Dujarric said.

Humanitarian access across Syria, including through cross-border and cross-line operations," he said, "must be expanded and humanitarian activities be broadened through investment in early recovery projects."