Humanitarian aid to millions of people in the Syrian civil war today depends on a vote in the UN Security Council in New York. Germany yesterday, shortly before the expiry of a controversial regulation on cross-border aid, introduced a compromise proposal to the most powerful UN body, as the dpa learned from diplomatic circles.
The result is expected in the early afternoon (local time) today. The Russian UN mission announced that it had put its own text to the vote at the same time.
If, as on Tuesday, the German-Belgian draft resolution fails due to a veto by Russia – one of Syria’s most important allies – and China, and the Russian counterproposal is not accepted, the mechanism will expire today without a successor solution. Specifically, this would mean that trucks with relief goods could be prevented from entering certain parts of Syria. In this case, diplomats expect the Security Council to begin negotiations on reopening in a timely manner.
Relief supplies for millions of people
The background to this is a resolution that has been in place since 2014, which allows the United Nations to bring important relief supplies to parts of the country via border crossings that are not controlled by the Syrian government. Millions of people are dependent on the goods that pass through these points. After Russian resistance, the once four crossings were reduced to two at the beginning of the year – since then, the supply situation for some regions has deteriorated significantly, according to aid organizations.
Moscow and Beijing vetoed an extension of the resolution on Tuesday, stating that two transitions were kept open for twelve months. The German-Belgian compromise proposal now plans to keep the two crossings between Turkey and Syria open for six months. Russia, on the other hand, now only wants to approve a transition for the delivery of relief goods in its counter-resolution, thus gradually phasing out and replacing the mechanism. This should strengthen the position of the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad vis-à-vis his domestic opponents.
