Russia won victory for its ally Bashar Al-Assad at the UN Saturday, July 11, after a week of negotiations, forcing the Security Council to limit supplies of humanitarian aid to the north western Syria, held by rebels. However, several UN diplomats, different NGOs, and the vast majority of the Council itself, had reiterated that the two crossing points to date located on the Turkish-Syrian border were essential to provide the support needed by the 4 , 3 million refugees – despite the fact that a first case of Covid-19 has been detected in the region.
But for the second time this year, Moscow has absolutely not compromised, and continues to explain that humanitarian aid must pass through Damascus, to "Respect his sovereignty". Already in January, under Russian pressure, the Council had been forced to revise the United Nations system downwards, going from four crossing points, with Turkey, to two.
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Mothers give their children grass
The Council was briefed on the catastrophic state of the situation. "The mothers explain that they cannot find food or medicine in the markets, and that they depend entirely on the food packages distributed at the border, said UN Deputy Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Mark Lowcock on Monday (June 29th) in a regular update. Some cook grass to enhance the portions of food. This is the level of despair. " Mark Lowcock had then expressed the wish that the UN mechanism keep the two crossing points at the Turkish border, and that we also reactivate the Yaroubiya point on the Syrian-Iraqi border, in order to be able to cope with a possible progression of the pandemic .
This week, an overwhelming majority of the Council (13 out of 15 members) voted twice to maintain this system of cross-border crossing points, but Russia, as well as China, have vetoed two successive texts – the 15e and 16e Russian vetos since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. The points of Bab Al-Hawa (near Idlib) and Bab Al-Salamah (near Aleppo) had to be closed for a few hours on Saturday July 11, failing to have been authorized again in time by the diplomats: the thirteen members of the Council in favor of a maximum device dared to risk closing the device for a few hours, the time to attempt a final negotiation. The last text, voted by 12 members of the Council, reinstalls Bab Al-Hawa, renewed for one year.
"We remain committed to the victims"
Ironically, this battle around resolution 2504 comes just eleven days after the vote on the text establishing a global humanitarian truce of ninety days due to the Covid-19 pandemic. "We finally proposed a compromise to preserve the UN cross-border mechanism, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who was often in direct contact with Moscow during these negotiations. But we are convinced that more points are needed. We remain committed to the victims of the war in Syria. " Secretary General Antonio Guterres recalled that access to aid must be ensured under international humanitarian law. "The UN and member states must explore new routes to ensure that as much aid as possible reaches those who need it, in the northeast and northwest of the country"said Louis Charbonneau, director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the UN, after the vote.
"The negotiators could have offered other guarantees to the Russians in an attempt to reach a compromise, perhaps via Turkish mediation", says an observer. It is unclear whether Germany and Belgium could have circumvented the will of Russia and its veto.
The will to spare Russia
The more so as the co-editors of the text tried on the contrary to spare it: whereas they had the project to request the reopening of the third point of Yaroubiya, they preferred only to ask for the simple renewal of the two points still in activity last week , so that Russia does not feel "Provoked". "Germany and Belgium have tried to point the finger at Russia as little as possible, analyzes Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group. In January, they attacked her head-on, and had to surrender. " The co-editors of the text had to defend themselves on another front as well: Russian and Chinese diplomats made several attempts to have the text record that American and European sanctions prevented good access to humanitarian aid. The Council did not let them do it.
Since January, 8,486 trucks have crossed the Turkish border to help 4.3 million people in the northwest, the vast majority of whom are internally displaced. To believe an NGO official wishing to remain anonymous, and who works regularly with the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, "At the moment, exclusive transit through Damascus is not working at all. " "Some people whisper that one “gentleman agreement”(Informal agreement) was passed in case the Covid-19 epidemic spread to Syria – which is not the case at the moment, confides the observer. They think they can then request the opening of Bab Al-Salamah urgently. "
