Government allows UN to keep delivering aid via 2 crossings in Aleppo
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Syrian government extended on Saturday permission for the United Nations to deliver aid through two border crossings in opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria for three more months.
Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the U.N. can continue to use the Bab al-Salama and al-Rai border crossings in the northern countryside of Aleppo, northwestern Syria.
In July 2014, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 2165 which authorized cross-border humanitarian aid delivery to Syria through four border crossings including al-Ramtha with Jordan, Bab al-Salama and Bab al-Hawa with Turkey, and al-Ya’rubiyah/Tel Kocher with Iraq, without the consent of the Syrian government.
In January 2020, the U.N. Res. 2504 reduced the number of border crossings to only Bab al-Salama and Bab al-Hawa for six months open to renewal in a special meeting by the UNSC.
Since July 2020, Bab al-Hawa has been the only crossing kept open to U.N. aid based on Res. 2533 (2020), while the use of the others was curtailed.
On the other hand, Badran Chiya Kurd, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said on Jan. 6, 2023, that the closure of the al-Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) border crossing is a blatant politicization of the humanitarian situation in Northeast Syria,
Despite successive calls by the AANES and operating organizations in the region for the urgent need to open the crossing, the Russian and Chinese vetoes were always there, keeping the community’s needs in limbo.