UN to vote Friday on new Syria cross-border aid resolution

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/un-to-vote-friday-on-new-syria-cross-border-aid-resolution/2020/01/09/cfb6fabe-3332-11ea-971b-43bec3ff9860_story.html

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UNITED NATIONS — Supporters of allowing humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria through three border crossings called for a vote Friday on a U.N. Security Council resolution similar to one that Russia and China vetoed on Dec. 30 despite strong support from other council members.

The council’s mandate for cross-border aid deliveries expires on Friday, and if it is not extended aid deliveries to more than 1 million Syrians every month, mainly in rebel-held areas, will stop.

The draft resolution co-sponsored by Germany, Belgium and Kuwait and supported by the U.N. humanitarian office would extend the mandate for deliveries for six months and cut one of four crossing points from Jordan.

It is more streamlined than the defeated measure and addresses some concerns of Russia, Syria’s closest ally, including calling on U.N. humanitarian agencies “to improve monitoring of the deliverty and distribution of United Nations relief consignments and their delivery inside Syria.”

It also asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to conduct an independent review of U.N. humanitarian operations across borders and conflict lines within six months.

Russia and China failed in a Dec. 30 attempt to get Security Council support for a rival resolution that would have extended deliveries for six months but kept only two crossing points in Turkey. It was not clear yet whether the Russians and Chinese would try again to get the council to adopt the resolution.

The current year-long mandate for aid deliveries through four border crossings — Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa in Turkey, Al Yarubiyah in Iraq, and Al-Ramtha in Jordan — expires on Jan. 10.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the council in late December that “the United Nations does not have an alternative means of reaching people in need in the areas in which cross-border assistance is being provided.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at the time that the humanitarian situation in northwest and northeast Syria is “horrific,”” stressing that “it would be markedly worse without the cross-border operation.””