Published: Just now
The UN Security Council is said to have agreed at the last minute to extend the opening of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Syria.
Bab al-Hawa delivers support to Syria via Turkey, and intensive diplomatic negotiations take place every year when the resolution governing the opening of the border expires.
So again this year, with the difference that the resolution this time is extended only six months. The vote in the council is expected to take place later on Monday in New York time.
It is Russia that has sat on the sidelines and wanted to veto the resolution, while the Western Security Council’s Western countries wanted to extend it.
Russia has now announced, according to diplomatic sources, that it could consider agreeing to an extension of six months, something the other member states should eventually have agreed to. This in turn means that the resolution must be up for negotiation again in January 2023.
The importance of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which gives mainly the UN but also several other aid organizations the opportunity to bring food from Turkey to Syria’s worst-affected regions, is best explained in figures.
Every month, aid operations reach 2.4 million people in northwestern Syria, according to the UN. In May, more than 1,000 trucks of medicine and food crossed the border. More than 4.1 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in northwestern Syria, about 700,000 more than last year. Most are women and children.