UN to vote on aid deliveries to Syria’s rebel areas
United Nations, United States, (MILLAT ONLINE):The UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on extending for one year cross-border deliveries of humanitarian aid to Syria’s opposition-held areas after Russia demanded changes to the relief effort.
Since 2014, UN aid convoys have crossed the border from Turkey and Jordan — without the approval of the Syrian government — and are now delivering food to one million Syrians per month, on average.
Russia last month said it was seeking changes to the UN resolution authorizing the cross-border aid operation, arguing that the shipments were not sufficiently monitored and that they undermined Syria’s sovereignty.
After weeks of negotiations, Russia however appears to have agreed to a one-year extension of the aid operation, diplomats said Monday.
A unanimous vote at the council on the cross-border aid would mark a rare show of unity over Syria after Russia used its veto power to end a UN-led probe into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
The United Nations maintains that the cross-border deliveries are a lifeline to Syrians living in opposition-held territory because the government in Damascus has heavily restricted aid shipments to those areas.
More than 13 million people need humanitarian aid in Syria, now in its seventh year of war.