NEW YORK CITY: Four million people in northwestern Syria who depend on international aid to survive are unsure whether they will have bread on their tables after July 10. It is at this time that a delicate cross-border UN mechanism has been established to deliver aid to Syria. to be dead.
Its renewal is up for a vote at the UN Security Council next month amid fears that Russia will use its power of veto to close the last remaining UN-facilitated gateway to aid in Syria, Turkey’s On the border with Bab al-Hawa.
Albania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of June, Ferrit Hoxha, told Arab News during a press conference that closing the only border crossing would “condemn death, starvation and hunger”. Millions of people.”
He added: “I hope that no one, neither Russia nor any other country, will come to this decision: to condemn citizens to death and hunger.”
While the world’s media stopped counting the number of dead and wounded in the Syrian conflict, the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the world’s largest number of internally displaced people highlight the fact that the war is not over. Is.
Ninety-nine percent of Syria’s population lives below the poverty line, leaving many families in scavenging to survive. (AFP file photo)
Syria continues to experience one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with 90 percent of the population living below the poverty line. According to the World Food Program, 14.6 million people now need humanitarian aid to survive, up 1.2 million from the previous year.
The crumbling economy coupled with the growing global food shortage as a result of the war in Ukraine has added a new layer of complexity to the situation. Now, the WFP has warned, the threat of famine is knocking at Syria’s door.
Ninety-nine percent of Syria’s population lives below the poverty line, leaving many families in scavenging to survive. (AFP file photo)
In 2014, a cross-border mechanism was created to allow the delivery of UN humanitarian aid in opposition-held areas of Syria. Although international humanitarian law requires that all aid delivery must go through the host government, the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has seized aid as a political weapon and withheld it from opponents, which led the Security Council to Inspired to approve the use of four crossings. On the Syrian border: one from Jordan, one from Iraq and two from Turkey.
As of December 2019, members of the Security Council renewed the mandate for these crossings without fuss. In January 2020, however, permanent member Russia used its power of veto to force everyone to shut down: Bab al-Hawa.
A convoy transporting humanitarian aid enters Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on January 18, 2022. (AFP)
If this last remaining crossing is closed – and the fear is real – humanitarian agencies say they will be unable to feed more than about 10 percent of those in need. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to find an alternative to UN aid actions.
“The problem is you have organizations and institutions that have been in emergency mode for 12 years,” said Jomana Qaddour, co-founder of Syria Relief and Development, a humanitarian organization operating in northwestern Syria.
“The Syrian crisis has been so consuming and so overwhelming that it is now time to plan a massive humanitarian response – under an entirely different umbrella, with all the buy-in from a variety of different actors, from local to international donors. Till – will be enough indeed. feat.”
A truck carrying aid packages from the World Food Program drives through the city of Hazano in the rebel-held northern rural area of Syria’s Idlib province on May 16, 2022. (Omar Hajj Qadour / AFP)
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the effects of the war on Ukraine on food security are “systematic, severe and rapid”. He has said that war, along with other crises, threatens to trigger an unprecedented wave of hunger and destruction, leading to social and economic chaos.
While lamenting the skyrocketing food prices and the nearly doubling of the cost of fertilizers and the shortage of corn, wheat, rice and other staple crops, Guterres warned that this year’s food crisis is about a lack of access, ” Next year may be about food shortage. ,
Innumbers
90% of Syria’s population lives below the poverty line.
14.6m Syrians depend on humanitarian aid.
While the United Nations has warned that no country will be left untouched by food shortages, especially those already vulnerable, one can only imagine the devastating severity of its impact in a place like Syria, which has endured for the past 12 years. Been facing a similar situation since. years of struggle.
Intense talks for a new proposal to expand the cross-border mechanism are continuing behind closed doors, led by Ireland and Norway, for a Security Council vote in July, according to sources in the Irish mission to the United Nations.
Civil society activists, aid, and medical and rescue services formed a human chain rally on July 2, 2021, calling for the continued passage of humanitarian aid in rebel-held Idlib, Syria. (AFP file)
Both countries are the main advocates at the United Nations for humanitarian issues in Syria. Around this time last year, their ambassadors to the United Nations, Geraldine Byrne Naison and Mona Juul, were seen running back and forth from one UN chamber to another, preparing to recapture Bab al-Hawa. The council members were trying to rally around a resolution made. ,
Last year, when Russia and the US reached an agreement on this issue, US President Joe Biden called it a diplomatic victory. The vote came just days after holding a summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during which the cross-border issue was discussed.
Following the Council’s successful adoption of Resolution 2585 last year, the two leaders “appreciated the joint work of their respective teams following the US-Russia summit, which led to the Security Council today unanimously renewing cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria.” Happened. “
An aerial photograph shows a camp for displaced Syrians in the village of Killi, near Bab al-Hawa, bordering Turkey, in Idlib province, January 9, 2021. (AFP photo)
The US has long insisted that progress in the aid process would open the door to more meaningful engagement with Russia on some complex diplomatic questions related to Syria, such as the issue of captives and forced disappearances, the return of refugees, and Functions of the Constitutional Committee
This time, however, diplomatic talks between the two major powers have stalled after the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is investing her personal legacy in seeking an extension of the mandate for Bab el-Hawa. He touched upon the issue during several meetings when his country took over the presidency of the Security Council in May.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the United Nations, H.
She recently returned from an official visit to Turkey, her second this year, during which she visited the Syrian border to assess possible consequences, in July forcing the United Nations to end humanitarian deliveries in Idlib needed. She warned that without assistance, “the children would die.”
“We have not forgotten Syria,” Thomas-Greenfield said as he vowed to do “everything possible” to continue the UN mandate to provide cross-border aid and meet growing needs on the ground. It has been expanded to She said she would try to resume discussions with Russian diplomats at the United Nations so that aid continues to flow.
The Russian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Dmitry Polansky, Moscow’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, recently spoke about the prospects for a revival of diplomacy with Washington, citing the “current geopolitical situation”. presented a pessimistic view. ,
An aerial view shows transport of humanitarian aid parked at customs in Syria after crossing from Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on January 18, 2022. (AFP)
Russia argues that the cross-border mechanism violates Syria’s sovereignty. With China’s backing, Moscow has lobbied for all assistance through Assad’s government and has blamed the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country on US and European sanctions against the Syrian regime.
Critics of Russia’s stance say Moscow’s priority is not cross-border aid, and it wants to use the power of its veto to gain support for its position on Syria. According to critics, Russian diplomats at the UN have been linking the vote on cross-border mechanisms to unrelated issues such as sanctions relief, reconstruction efforts and counter-terrorism issues.
While UN chief Guterres has repeatedly insisted that cross-border operations are one of the most transparent and scrutinized mechanisms in the world, Russia claims that aid flowing through them can help designated terrorists in and around Idlib. Groups are benefiting, such as Hayat Tahrir al-Dhwah.
Washington declared a victory last year on renewing the cross-border mechanism, but Qaddaur, who in addition to his work with Syria Relief and Development is also a senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, believes It is Russia that has benefited the most from this situation.
He believes that it is unlikely that the expansion of the Bab al-Hawa gateway will be vetoed, the reason being that it is a useful political card that is played over and over again, and again in the future. will be played from
Jomana Kaddaur. (supplied)
In each round of renewal, according to Kaddaur, Moscow has been able to obtain a number of concessions from Washington and its allies, such as a UN resolution supporting some early recovery projects that previously relied on a broader political settlement. , as well as an Assad regime worthy of easing restrictions.
“This confusion over what the West is actually getting from these talks puts them in the least vulnerable position,” Qaddaur told Arab News. “And, at most, it hinders the ability of partners such as aid organizations to continue to rely on UN aid.”
The Syrian civil war has provided Putin with an opportunity to re-establish Russia as a powerful player in the region by protecting his ally and defeating a US-led regime-change campaign.
“Syria was the stage of the Russian resurgence,” Kaddaur said. “I can’t be too optimistic to think that this will be a place that Russia gives up easily. It’s something they will absolutely continue to fight for and shape up.”
Displaced Syrians protest against the regime and its ally Russia at a camp for displaced people in Kafr Lusin, near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, on September 7, 2018. (AFP)
Not that Syria is close to being at the top of the agenda in Washington, Kaddaur said.
“Am I under any illusion that America or the West is recalibrating and going back and putting Syria at the top of their priority list? No, I don’t think anything prompts such a reappraisal in American foreign policy circles. Ukraine dominates everything now,” she said.
Meanwhile, even if the aid corridor is not blocked, Syria’s northwest remains one of the country’s most vulnerable areas. Many agree that its ultimate fate lies thousands of miles away in New York, where calls for Security Council reform have intensified since the start of the war in Ukraine – reforms that seek to bring humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable. will allow Concerned whether it could be blocked by a veto of a permanent member of the Council.
