It is still unclear whether more food will come to the war-torn country.
(Photo: dpa)
Geneva Help is still rolling. Trucks belonging to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations cross the border from Turkey to north-west Syria. Loaded with food, medicine and other goods, the trucks use the only open crossing, Bab al-Hawa.
Every month, the UN sends hundreds of trucks along the Route of Hope. The target region in northwestern Syria, which is controlled by extremists and rebels, is the focal point of the hunger crisis in the conflict country: “It is a moral imperative to alleviate the suffering and vulnerability of 4.1 million people in this area,” demands the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “Eighty percent of those in need in north-west Syria are women and children.”
But on July 10, the mandate of the divided UN Security Council for the aid convoys to cross the border crossing expires – there is no other way of accessing the people in need. In the tussle over renewed authorization, Russia’s veto power plays an inglorious role. The nation, provoked by Western sanctions on the Ukraine attack, is now blocking the extension of the UN mandate.
If the most powerful UN body does not pull itself together, Secretary General Guterres warns, there will be devastating consequences for the people of northwestern Syria. Aid organizations fear “millions of lives are at stake”.
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US relations with Russia are dead
To prevent that, the US and other Western Council members are pushing to put the lights on for trucks to green for another year. However, the veto power of Russia is delaying a quick agreement in the Security Council – as in previous years. And now the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is exacerbating the confrontation in the UN Council: “Since the start of the Russian campaign against Ukraine in February this year, there seems to have been hardly any bilateral contact between the USA and Russia on cross-border aid,” explains the UN expert Richard Gowan from the Crisis Group peace initiative. “Relations between the two countries collapsed because of Ukraine.”
Must the starving people of north-west Syria pay the price for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Eastern Europe? In any case, diplomats and experts are puzzled as to whether Russia will go through with its Syria blockade. Expert Gowan explains: “It seems that Moscow has not yet given its diplomats in New York final instructions on whether they should veto the continuation of cross-border aid.” The UN Council could vote on Thursday.
>> Also read here: “We will have famines” – Why the food crisis can hardly be stopped
Against the cross-border aid supplies, Russia primarily argues that the sovereignty of the ally Syria is in the field. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebensja, once called the transports “anachronistic”. Syria has the right to control its borders. Officials of President Bashar al-Assad would have to check aid deliveries.
But the convoys rolling from Turkey to northwestern Syria cannot be inspected by Assad’s people. The reason: armed groups and terrorists still dominate the region – Assad has no power there.
In the background, it is also about grain from Ukraine
According to Russian diction, the convoys are thus violating Syria’s sovereign rights. Instead, Russia is demanding that the humanitarian supplies be transported across the lines of conflict inside Syria. Then Assad would have full control over traffic. Russia and Syria form an alliance: only thanks to Russian arms support was Assad able to gain the upper hand in the conflict that broke out in 2011.
>> Also read here: Dispute over grain blockade: Kyiv does not see Turkey as an honest mediator
First, in 2014, the Security Council allowed the opening of four border crossings for Syrian aid, and Russia grudgingly gave in. But since July 2020, under pressure from Moscow, the trucks have only been allowed to head for one checkpoint. The then German ambassador to the UN, Christoph Heusgen, called the Kremlin’s policy “shocking”.
Bargaining in the Security Council over aid to Syria overlaps with another serious crisis: Russia is currently haggling with Ukraine, Turkey and the UN over secure corridors for agricultural goods through the Black Sea. The main concern is up to 25 million tons of grain that Russia’s military is blocking in Ukraine.
The opponents could offset concessions at one negotiating table against concessions at the other negotiating table. Millions of starving people are waiting for a breakthrough.
More: What is behind the Turkish plans for the Syria offensive