So much diplomatic effort for a symbolic resolution. In the name of the fight against Covid-19, the members of the UN Security Council adopted on Wednesday 1er July, a text proposed by France and Tunisia, calling for an end to conflicts in the world. A humanitarian truce of at least ninety days should be observed, recommends the text, bitterly negotiated for three months.
The result of a compromise, which explains the absence of any mention of the World Health Organization, the resolution allows the guardians of multilateralism to present a rare and modest victory. "We must, subject by subject, rely on this resolution to move forward, entrusts a diplomat to the UN. This is what we are going to do in a few days on the renewal of cross-border access points to Syria. Without them, the humanitarian situation in Idlib would be unmanageable. "
The revealing of the goodwill of the great powers in the Middle East concerns the front line in Libya, but especially the humanitarian situation in Syria. On this last point, international mobilization faces a political pitfall. At a new conference of donor countries in Brussels on June 30, pledges of € 4.9 billion were collected for 2020, to which another € 2 billion for 2021 will be added, in order to meet the human disaster hitting the country. Twelve million people are displaced, 5.6 million of whom have fled the country. Almost nine in ten people live below the poverty line.
"Well below" the necessary
Russia, which makes a negligible contribution to international aid (0.3% in 2019), has a virtual right to life and death over the distressed populations in Syria. The routing of convoys through cross-border corridors, which are the subject of exhausting palaver between capitals, depends on his goodwill. Resolution 2504, which allows aid to flow into northwestern Syria, across the Turkish border, will expire on July 10.
By formally launching the strategic dialogue with Moscow in the summer of 2019, Emmanuel Macron had hoped for progress on this subject. It was not the case. In January, Russia forced the Security Council to revise the system down from four crossing points to two on the Turkish-Syrian border, at Bab Al-Salamah and Bab Al-Hawa. Those with Iraq and Jordan had been rejected. The mandate for these crossings had been reduced from one year to six months.
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