Syria’s representative to the United Nations, Bassam Sabak, announced on Thursday that Damascus would allow humanitarian aid to be sent from Turkey to non-regime-controlled areas via Bab al-Hawa within 6 months. Northwest of the country.
Sabak said – during a press conference – Damascus “has taken a sovereign decision to allow the United Nations and its competent agencies to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in need in northwestern Syria in full cooperation and coordination with the Syrian government for a period of 6 months from July 13.”
The Syrian decision came after Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, called for the reactivation of a mechanism to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria.
Dujarric said Guterres called for another 12-month extension of the aid delivery mechanism, which ended two days ago.
He further said that the Secretary General of the United Nations is holding meetings and talks in this regard and expressed hope that his efforts will be successful.
UN calls for extension of mechanism for delivery of humanitarian aid on Turkish border Russia vetoed the Security Council resolution last Tuesday.
Russia voted against a resolution to extend the aid delivery mechanism through the Bab al-Hawa crossing for 9 months after the mechanism’s mandate expired last Monday.
The mechanism, established in 2014, allowed the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid to opposition-held people in northwest Syria without the consent of the Syrian government, which it has always denounced as a violation of its sovereignty.
The United Nations says 4 million people in northwestern Syria, most of them women and children, continue to be in need of humanitarian aid, exacerbated by years of conflict, economic crises, disease outbreaks and a devastating earthquake that has hit the region. Last February in southern Turkey.
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