Security Council postpones vote on cross-border aid to Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, the UN Security Council postponed the vote on extending the mechanism for bringing aid across the border into Syria without the approval of Damascus.
On July 10, the UN Security Council will meet to discuss a mechanism for extending the entry of humanitarian aid into Syria across the border before the current mechanism, which has designated only Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey as an official crossing for UN aid, expires.
The mechanism went into effect in 2014, but has since been reduced since last year under pressure from Russia.
On Wednesday, Russia, through the Russian President’s Special Envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, demanded the cessation of the aid delivery mechanism across the Syrian border.
Lavrentiev said, during the sixteenth international meeting of the “Astana” negotiations on Syria which started on Wednesday in the Kazakh city of Nur-Sultan, that “aid must arrive through Damascus.”
Russia attributes its refusal to extend the work of this mechanism to the fact that international aid can reach those in need through Damascus and across the front lines, a proposal that the West strongly rejects.
France had threatened to stop international aid if the Security Council did not extend the cross-border mechanism.