Thursday, 09 July_The UN Security Council has rejected a Russian-drafted resolution that would extend a cross-border aid delivery mechanism for a six-month period after Russia — along with China — vetoed a relevant Western-drafted document, which Moscow argued ignored the realities on the ground in the Arab country.
On Wednesday, seven countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, the Dominican Republic and Estonia voted against the draft resolution, which needed at least nine ‘yes’ votes.
The Russian-proposed resolution garnered support from China, Vietnam and South Africa plus its own vote. Tunisia, Niger, Indonesia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines abstained.
The vote was carried out in written format due to restrictions at the UN headquarters, imposed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The vote came after Russia and China vetoed a resolution drafted by Germany and Belgium that would maintain two border crossing points from Turkey — namely Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa — to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria for a year.
The mechanism for the cross-border humanitarian operations in Syria had been established by the Security Council in July 2014. The authorization is set to expire on Friday.
The Russian resolution sought to extend the mechanism of humanitarian deliveries to Syria’s affected regions for another six months and limit the number of crossing points to just Bab al-Hawa checkpoint on the Turkish-Syrian border.
Russia argued that the 2014 mechanism needed an update as it is in harmony with the fast-changing situation in Syria, which has managed, in the course of the past years, to liberate most parts of its soil from foreign-backed militants on the back of Russian and Iranian assistance.
Moscow had said earlier that it expected the UN and Damascus to work out alternative routes for aid delivery at the request and with the permission of the recipient state, while respecting Syria’s territorial integrity.
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