Russia and China veto Security Council resolution enabling aid to Syria
Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution on Tuesday that would maintain cross border aid to Syria’s rebel-held northwest, in a move criticised as threatening millions of civilian lives.
Russia instead proposed a resolution that would allow the delivery of aid through a single crossing point from Turkey for six months. Syria’s closest ally, Moscow argues that aid should be delivered via Damascus across conflict lines.
China said it was in favour of maintaining cross border aid but opposed the resolution because its drafters Germany and Belgium failed to include a condemnation of unilateral US sanctions on Syria.
The veto was the 15th Russia had used since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, and the ninth for China.
A European diplomat told AFP the veto was an "extremely negative development".
"They want to strangle the population even more," the diplomat said, speaking anonymously, adding that aid "cannot reach the population from one" crossing point.
"Insisting on only one crossing point is cynical and it doesn't meet the needs of the people," the source said.
The UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said the two crossings at Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Haw are "a lifeline for millions of civilians whom the UN cannot reach by other means."
He told the Security Council last month that 2.8 million people in Idlib, 70 per cent of the region’s population, need humanitarian assistance.
The crossings were operating at maximum capacity, according to President of the International Rescue Committee David Miliband, who said it defied reason to support cutting aid to Idlib during a pandemic.
“Russia and China have put Syrian lives on the line,” he said.
In January, Russia used its veto threat to force the Security Council to adopt a resolution closing a border crossing from Jordan and another from Iraq into northeast Syria.
In May, Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told his American counterpart: “Do not waste your time on efforts to reopen the closed cross-border points.”
The closure of the Iraq crossing cut 40 percent of medical aid to northeast Syria, according to western diplomats.
The Syrian government has reported over 250 cases of coronavirus, including nine deaths, the United Nations has said.
But the risk of coronavirus reaching Idlib’s overcrowded displacement camps meant "a perfect storm is in the making", according to a UN report released Tuesday.
The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria described the “unfathomable suffering” of civilians in Idlib, as both pro-government and rebel forces committed “flagrant war crimes” during a campaign launched last year by Damascus to recapture the province.
Access for aid in Idlib is more important than ever, said an author of the report, Hanny Megally. “Pandemics know no borders, neither should life-saving aid.”
