Aid organizations have appealed to the UN Security Council to keep the corridor from Turkey to Syria open. At the UN, a solution is being sought under the leadership of Ireland and Norway
Access to food for some four million Syrians in the northwestern part of the country in Idlib province is once again on the cut as Russia has taken the plight of civilians as a weapon in its own power policy.
Only one border crossing point is open from southern Turkey to the Syrian side, Bab al-Hawa. The opening hours have been agreed one year at a time by the UN Security Council. The current contract expires in just over three weeks, on July 10th.
The UN Security Council is due to vote on the future, but Russia is back on track.
For a couple of years now, Russia has been challenging the route of aid shipments. Russia believes international aid is supporting terrorists, Syrian rebels and the president Bashar al-Assadin opponents of the regime.
Russia is an ally of the Syrian leadership. Russia is trying to put pressure on organizations to transport aid through areas controlled by the Syrian government, but the organizations do not agree because they consider the routes risky.
The UN is seeking a last-minute solution before the vote, led by Ireland and Norway.
According to Russia, it is time to close the route
According to the ambassador, the UN and Western countries are not active enough and are not trying to shift aid shipments to routes controlled by the Syrian leadership.
According to news agencies, Russia may be tied to possible solutions to the war in Ukraine as a means of negotiating further assistance to Idlib.
A year ago in the summer, keeping Bab al-Hawa open was confirmed at the last minute. The agreement came into being shortly after the President of the United States Joe Biden met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin summit in Geneva in June.
Now, relations between the United States and Russia have been severed by the war in Ukraine, and such a high-level negotiating relationship no longer exists.
Syria is starving
The Syrian Civil War began ten years ago. A couple of years later, the UN agreed on four different border crossing points for relief transports. Two of them passed through Turkey and one through Jordan and one through Iraq.
Last year, it was surpassed by about 10,000 aid trucks.
According to the UN, about 90 percent of Syria’s 17 million people live below the poverty line. The World Food Program (WFP) says nearly 15 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance.