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Moscow hesitates to veto in the UN Security Council the entry of humanitarian aid into the opposition regions of Syria, where 4.5 million people live and 90% survive thanks to the aid that comes from abroad. This veto would mean an unprecedented hunger crisis in the country. “We see no reason to preserve the cross-border aid mechanism,” said Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Dimitri Polianski.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY.- It’s been a little over two years since the bombing eased and the guns stopped in northwest Syria, and Mohammed is thankful for that. Mohammed, like many of the 4.5 million inhabitants of the region -more than half are displaced by war-, have been able to return to a kind of normality: during this time they have been able to go to the markets without too much fear of Russian bombing and to the regimen.
Thanks to humanitarian aid from abroad and the open border with Turkey, these markets have food. “In the city it is not like in the refugee camps, of course… It is much worse there and the situation is desperate, but in the city we have reached a kind of balance. Prices have not skyrocketed as in the areas controlled by the regime. There is more security than before. Help is coming, and we can’t complain at the moment, although people are scared”, says Mohammed. In the fields, stationed right next to the wall that marks the border with Turkey, the situation is desperate, but help is coming.
And despite everything, this precarious balance in which the region lives is about to change. Currently, only one border crossing that connects the area is open to humanitarian aid, coordinated by the United Nations. A few years ago there were two more, but Russia, using its veto power in the UN Security Council, closed them down one by one, drowning the only Syrian region that still opposes Russia’s ally in Syria, the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Damascus.
Now, only the Bab Al Hawa border crossing remains open. In a vote in the UN Security Council starting this Friday, Russia is threatening to turn off the tap on humanitarian aid. 90% of the people living in north-west Syria need this help to live.
“If the aid stops, the situation will deteriorate enormously. Of the inhabitants of the area, more than half depend on this help completely. They have nothing else. They are the ones in the fields on the border. And if these people cannot survive, they will try to go to Turkey, where people have changed their attitude and do not want any more refugees. Turkey is at the limit and this, I think, would cause another wave of migration to Europe”, explains Syria expert Ömer Özkizilcik, who believes that Russia is using this threat of a new migration crisis to pressure the West.
“A Sword of Damocles”
The renewal of the mandate for aid to reach the opposition regions of Syria must always be done every six months. And this is where Russia uses its veto power to extract concessions from its rivals.
“If this lifeline is cut, millions of people’s access to basic food, water and healthcare will be drastically reduced.”
“The ever-present threat of the non-renewal of the cross-border resolution hangs like a Damocles sword over the population of northwestern Syria, against the backdrop of overwhelming humanitarian and medical needs and a serious economic crisis,” he explains in a statement. Claire San Filippo, General Coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for the Arab country, which continues:
“The UN Security Council must renew vital cross-border operations. If this lifeline is cut, millions of people’s access to basic food, water and health care will be drastically reduced. This will lead to preventable deaths.”
“They are playing a political and diplomatic game with the lives of innocent people.”
To date, Moscow has always accepted the renewal of humanitarian aid in exchange for concessions from Washington and Europe. But this time it seems different. Now the bridges between the West and Russia are completely broken. The reason is the Russian invasion in Ukraine. The agreement is still possible, but experts consider that it will be difficult.
“Russia will want to push for the maximum. Possibly it calls for the lifting of sanctions against the regime of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and also Western sanctions on the Russian economy, imposed by the Syrian war first and the Ukrainian one later”, considers Özkizilcik, who summarizes the Russian position: “They are playing a political and diplomatic game with the lives of innocent people.”
The vote at the UN Security Council in New York begins this Friday and has a deadline of Sunday, July 10, when, if an agreement is not reached, Bab Al Hawa will close its doors, leaving trapped in its interior to 4.5 million people without food.
“People here are afraid, of course. We hope that everything continues as it has been so far. If not… many will try to escape. I don’t know… I guess we’ll try to cross into Turkey…” Mohammed laments.
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