UN Security Council fails to extend cross-border aid to Syria

Russia was sole veto in widely supported resolution that included a year-long extension for humanitarian aid

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  A woman receives aid from the World Food Programme at a camp for internally displaced people in Syria. All photos: Abd Almajed Alkarh for The National

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  The WFP could be forced to halt aid shipments to the camps on July 10, when a Security Council resolution expires. The Syrian government insists that aid should be distributed via Damascus, not across the Turkish border.

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  WFP food aid boxes contain a variety of staples, including rice, sugar and chickpeas.

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  An aid worker with supplies as a local looks on. Millions will be at a risk of starvation if the flow of aid stops.

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  Hundreds of the aid lorries that crossed into Syria this year carried food. Others carried medical supplies and items for shelter, such as tents. Bab Al Hawa accounts for around 60 per cent of UN aid entering Syria.

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  UN aid is not permitted for resale on the local market. Many camp residents say they will starve without the food boxes.

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  A relief worker distributes gives aid to a camp resident.

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  Almost four million displaced people live in camps across north-western Syria.

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  A camp for internally displaced people in Al Karamah, northern Syria.

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  Graphic artist Aziz Al Asmar draws a political mural on wall of a destroyed building in Bennesh, Idlib.

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  Artist Aziz Al Asmar poses with children next to his mural in Bennesh.

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  A mother and child in a camp for the internally displaced next to food aid provisions.

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  The UN sends aid to people across north-west Syria, including Aleppo and parts of Idlib.

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  About four million people living in displacement camps in Syria rely on food aid for survival.

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  A camp in Al Karama is home to families who face being cut off from UN food aid.

Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended the opening of a cross-border aid corridor to Syria by a year.

The authorisation for aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab Al Hawa, which has been in effect since 2014 and does not require backing from Damascus, is set to expire on Sunday.

Russia vetoed a resolution drafted by Ireland and Norway that would have extended aid deliveries to some four million people in opposition-controlled north-west Syria from Turkey.

"This is a life and death issue. And tragically, people will die because of this vote and the country who shamelessly deployed the veto," US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council.

"Tragically people will die because of this vote."

The resolution received 13 votes in favour, while China abstained.

Russia's deputy ambassador to the world body, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused the west of "stubbornness" and said the resolution "ignored the sovereignty of Damascus."

Western nations had deemed the text unacceptable, as there is no guarantee of an extension at the start of the new year.

A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by any of the council's permanent members — Russia, China, the US, Britain and France — to be adopted.

The 15-member council then voted on a proposal by Russia, a Syrian ally, to approve the UN operation for six months and also push for broad international reconstruction efforts in Syria. It failed with only Russia and China voting in favour, while the US, Britain and France voted against it and the remaining 10 council members abstained.

The UAE's ambassador to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, said the failure to pass a resolution was a matter of deep regret.

“We had hoped that this council would be able to send a positive message today to the Syrian people, particularly at Eid Al Adha, a sacred occasion that should remind us all of the importance of giving and of compromise,” Ms Nusseibeh said.

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through Bab Al Hawa last year, bound for Idlib.

Moscow, an ally of Damascus, has curtailed a number of western-backed measures in recent years, using its veto 17 times in relation to Syria since the war's outbreak in 2011.

Russia views the authorisation as a violation of Syria's sovereignty, and believes the delivery of aid to the northwest region should only be carried out from Damascus across the front line.

- With agencies