Britain calls for extending UN cross-border aid to Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Britain called on Friday for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to extend the UN cross-border aid mechanism to northwest Syria through Turkey for at least 12 months.
Ann Snow, UK Special Representative for Syria, called via a video footage on twitter while she was at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey for the UNSC to extend the cross-border aid mechanism to northwest Syria for 12 months.
On January 9, the UNSC voted unanimously to extend delivering border-crossing aid from Turkey to the opposition-held area in northwestern Syria.
The UN cross-border aid mechanism is set to expire next month, July.
Snow added in the tweet in the Arabic language that the Bab al-Hawa border crossing “is a vital path for the access of life-saving aid to northwest Syria where 4.1 million people urgently need the aid.”
She noted that hundreds of trucks pass through the border weekly to deliver basics, including food and medical supplies.
She stressed the need for the UNSC to extend the mechanism for at least 12 months “with humanitarian needs at an all-time high in Syria, the Syrian people deserve safe and consistent access.”
In July 2014, the UNSC adopted Resolution 2165 which authorized the UN to deliver cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria through four crossings al-Ramtha crossing with Jordan, Bab al-Salam with Turkey, Bab al-Hawa, and al Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) with Iraq, without the consent of the Syrian government.
Since July 2020, Bab al-Hawa has been the only crossing kept open to UN aid based on Resolution 2533 (2020), while the use of the others was curtailed.