United Nations, United States, July 8 (AFP\/APP): Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended cross-border aid to Syria by one year without Damascus’s backing.<\/p>\n
Western powers then voted down a competing resolution put forward by Moscow that proposed extending approval by just six months.<\/p>\n
The authorization for the aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa, which has been in effect since 2014, is set to expire Sunday.<\/p>\n
The aid is a lifeline for more than 2.4 million people in the northwestern Idlib region of Syria, under the control of jihadists and rebels.<\/p>\n
Thirteen of the fifteen Council members voted in favor of the text proposed by Norway and Ireland. China, which often votes the same way as Russia, chose to abstain.<\/p>\n
The vote had been due to be held Thursday but was scrapped following disagreement between Russia and the West.<\/p>\n
The Norway-Ireland text would have provided for a six-month extension until mid-January 2023, and then an additional six-month extension “unless the Council decides otherwise.”<\/p>\n
The extension would also be conditional on a “substantive report” by the secretary-general, including on the operation’s transparency, progress on channeling aid across the front line, and progress on meeting humanitarian needs.<\/p>\n
That text was already “an extreme compromise,” said America’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, accusing Russia of putting its “own political interests above the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people.”<\/p>\n
“Tragically people will die because of this vote,” she told the chamber.<\/p>\n
British ambassador Barbara Woodward said Moscow had deployed a “deeply irresponsible veto that will have a tragic impact.”<\/p>\n
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the world body, Dmitry Polyanskiy, meanwhile accused the west of “stubbornness” and said the resolution “ignored the sovereignty of Damascus.”<\/p>\n
– Key aid route –<\/p>\n
The United States, France and Britain voted against Russia’s draft text, while the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council abstained. Moscow secured Beijing’s vote.<\/p>\n
Western nations had deemed the text unacceptable, as there is no guarantee of an extension at the start of the new year.<\/p>\n
For resolutions to be adopted, at least nine of the 15 members must support it with none of the permanent members wielding their veto.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s deadline still leaves time for members of the Security Council to find common ground, observers note.<\/p>\n
Diplomats said the council’s non-permanent members may propose a nine-month extension to try to break the impasse.<\/p>\n
Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through Bab al-Hawa last year, bound for Idlib.<\/p>\n
It is the only crossing through which aid can be brought into Idlib without navigating areas controlled by Syrian government forces.<\/p>\n
Moscow, an ally of Damascus, has curtailed a number of Western-backed measures in recent years, using its veto 17 times in relation to Syria since the war’s outbreak in 2011.<\/p>\n
Russia views the authorization as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and believes the delivery of aid to the northwest region should only be carried out from Damascus across the front line.<\/p>\n
Russia had hinted in recent months that it would oppose an extension, having already forced a reduction in the number of allowed border crossings.<\/p>\n
Dozens of NGOs and several senior UN officials had lobbied Security Council members for the year-long cross-border aid clearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United Nations, United States, July 8 (AFP\/APP): Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended cross-border aid to Syria by one year without Damascus’s backing. Western powers then voted down a competing resolution put forward by Moscow that proposed extending […]<\/p>\n
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