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UN-DIPLOMACY-SYRIA-HUMANITARIAN-CONFLICT
No progress seen despite intense UN talks on Syria aid
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Jan 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – UN Security Council
members held an intensive round of meetings Friday on the humanitarian crisis
in Syria’s embattled Idlib province amid calls to reauthorize urgently needed
cross-border aid.
Humanitarian aid currently flows into northwestern Syria — a last rebel
stronghold — through UN-designated checkpoints in Turkey and Iraq without
Damascus’s formal permission.
But that arrangement is set to expire on January 10, and with only a week
to find a solution, diplomats said Friday they had no progress to report so
far.
Several also said there had not yet been any discussion of how this week’s
killing by the US of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani might affect
matters in Syria, where Shiite forces under his sway play an outsized role.
In a first closed-door meeting Friday, requested by Britain and France,
Security Council delegates were briefed by the under- secretaries general for
political and humanitarian affairs, respectively Rosemary DiCarlo and Mark
Lowcock.
The council issued no statement afterward.
Two other closed-door sessions were held on the aid question.
The first brought together the council’s five permanent members — the US,
Britain, France, Russia and China.
The second involved the 10 non-permanent members, all of whom support a
continuation of cross-border aid even without Damascus’s permission, one
diplomat said.
When the council took up the matter on December 20, Russia and China vetoed
a resolution that would have authorized continued aid deliveries for a year
through four border points — two with Turkey, one with Jordan and one with
Iraq.
Three million people in the Idlib region benefit from the aid, according to
the UN.
Damascus maintains that only 800,000 people in Idlib are in need of aid.
Russia, a key supporter of the Syrian government, has said it would support
only a six-month extension, involving only two passage points on the Turkish-
Syrian border.
An earlier Russian draft proposal to that effect won only nine of the 15
Security Council votes needed for approval.
Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told reporters on Friday that there
was “no longer any justification for cross-border delivery of humanitarian
aid.”
He added that all aid must pass through Damascus.
Referring to Idlib, he said, “The Syrian government is determined not to
give up its rights and duty as a sovereign state to eliminate the last
stronghold of terrorism.”
Despite a truce announced in August, Idlib — a last rebel stronghold —
has seen a resurgence of violence in the last several weeks, hit by
bombardments from Syrian and Russian forces, and with government forces
clashing against jihadists and rebels.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0921 hrs