Russia circulates Security Council draft resolution authorizing single non-regime held entry point for aid

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Russia announced late Thursday that it has circulated a new UN Security Council draft resolution to authorize the maintenance of just one border crossing between Turkey and Syria, after vetoing a different draft resolution that would have renewed the provision of several crossings essential for getting humanitarian aid to civilians in Syria.

“We have put in blue a draft Security Council resolution which will allow cross-border humanitarian deliveries to Idlib in Syria through crossing point Bab-el-Hawa for one year,” tweeted Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky late Thursday.

“This border-crossing accounts for more than 85% of total volume of operations,” he added, also saying that the remaining amount can be “readjusted” through the same border crossing.

Russia - a main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - wants all humanitarian aid to enter through regime-held areas, forcing Kurdish-majority Rojava to rely on aid deliveries from distant Damascus.

In a move that sought to facilitate aid delivery to millions of beleaguered Syrians, Belgium and Germany introduced a draft resolution to the UNSC to extend the opening of the Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa border crossings with Turkey, and to reopen Rojava’s al-Yarubiyah border crossing with Iraq.

The section on al-Yarubiyah was removed upon Russian demand, but Moscow also rejected the new version of the proposal, leading to it being scrapped. Only China joined Russia in vetoing the proposal.

“We reject the accusations by some [of] our colleagues in the UN Security Council blaming Russia for depriving millions of people in the north-west of Syria from the UN humanitarian assistance,” added Polyansky in Thursday’s thread of tweets. “If our draft resolution is adopted the flows of aid will not stop.”

All 15 members of the Security Council will meet on Friday to make a final decision on the status of Syrian border crossings. To date, Russia has seemed determined to prevent the reopening of al-Yarubiyah and the continued opening of Bab al-Salam, one of the Syria-Turkey crossings.

Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Rudaw English on Thursday that Syrian civilians - especially those living in Rojava - lack access to international aid.

“Certainly, Kurdish areas are in an especially difficult position,” he said when asked if Kurds were particularly affected by border crossing closures.

Russia proposed in January to keep only the Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa border crossings open, and maintain closure of al-Yarubiyah and a Syria-Jordan border crossing. The proposal was voted on by all members of the Security Council on January 10.

That mandate was “particularly devastating for the people of northeastern Syria,” Charbonneau said.

Northeast Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava, is home to thousands of Islamic State-affiliated people in camps and fighters in prisons in addition to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people who have fled clashes from elsewhere in the country. There are 1.9 million people in need of humanitarian aid in the area, according to the Rojava Information Center (RIC), a local monitor.

Russia circulates Security Council draft resolution authorizing single non-regime held entry point for aid

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