UN votes for aid to Syria’s rebel area through just 1 crossing

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council is voting on a resolution that would extend humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria’s mainly rebel-held northwest from Turkey through just one crossing point, as Russia has insisted.

Russia, Syria’s most important ally, has argued that aid should be delivered from within the country across conflict lines and just one crossing point is needed.

The UN and humanitarian groups argued unsuccessfully — along with the vast majority of the UN Security Council — that two crossing points were essential to get aid to the 2.8 million needy people in the northwest, especially with the first case of COVID-19 recently reported in the region.

Today’s vote caps a week of high-stakes rivalry between Russia and China, and the 13 other council members who voted twice to maintain the two crossings from Turkey that were in operation until their mandate ended Friday.

Both times, Russia and China vetoed the resolutions — the 15  th and 16th veto by Russia of a Syria resolution since the conflict began in 2011 and the 9th and 10th by China.

Germany and Belgium, who sponsored the widely supported resolutions for two crossing points, were forced to back down by the threat of another Russian veto, and their latest draft would authorize only a single crossing point from Turkey for a year.

Results of the email vote by the 15 Security Council members are expected to be announced later today.

— AP