July 9 () –
Russia has vetoed this Friday a proposal by the Security Council of the United Nations Organization (UN) to extend humanitarian aid deliveries from Turkey to northwestern Syria for a year, a program that expires this Sunday, July 10.
The resolution, which was drafted by Ireland and Norway, has received 13 votes in favour. For its part, Russia has voted against, while China has abstained.
Russia’s deputy representative, Dimitri Polyanski, has argued that his “primary consideration” was to safeguard Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Chinese representative to the UN, Zhang Jun, has indicated that “the leadership of the Syrian government must be fully respected” and has called for negotiations to continue to achieve a compromise.
For their part, representatives of other countries, such as the United States, have requested a specific program so that agencies have “predictable time” to plan humanitarian operations.
“This is a matter of life and death and, tragically, there will be people who will die because of this vote and the country that has cynically deployed the veto,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. before the Council.
Thomas-Greenfield was referring to a second draft resolution tabled by Russia calling for a six-month renewal.
However, this proposal also did not receive enough support to be adopted: only Russia and China voted in favour; The United States, United Kingdom and France voted against, with all ten non-permanent members abstaining.
At least nine votes in favor and a veto by none of the permanent members — Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France — are needed for a resolution to pass.
“FIRST ORDER FAILURE”
The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria already pointed out in May that it would be a “failure of the first order” if the Security Council did not extend the period for delivering humanitarian aid.
The commission has stressed that in a context in which Syria is facing its “worst economic and humanitarian crisis since the beginning of the conflict”, the international community must guarantee assistance to the country and prolong the current commitment.
Experts warned that the interruption of this aid “would undermine the rights of the population that depends on the support of the international community.”
“Humanitarian aid must not be used as a weapon of war, and all parties concerned must give priority to the humanitarian aid needs of the country’s population. The life, health and dignity of a significant part of the population depend on the negotiation of the future resolution”, added said experts.
The United Nations estimates that 14.6 million Syrians depend on humanitarian assistance, while some twelve million people face acute food insecurity, a figure that has increased by 51 percent since 2019.
Throughout its 11 years of investigating the conflict, the Commission has documented how hostilities have hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout the country, and has found that both the Government and armed groups have used humanitarian aid to negotiate policy, even deliberately withholding it from specific populations, specifically those under siege.
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