No Progress Despite Intense Security Council Talks on Idlib
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
UN Security Council members held an intensive round of meetings Friday on the humanitarian crisis in Syria's embattled Idlib province at the request of France and the United Kingdom amid calls to reauthorize urgently needed cross-border aid. Syrian troops have captured more than 40 villages and hamlets over the past two weeks in Idlib, which is home to 3 million civilians. The UN has warned of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, which lies along the Turkish border. Humanitarian aid currently flows into northwestern Syria -- a last opposition stronghold -- through UN-designated checkpoints in Turkey and Iraq without the Assad regime’s formal permission. But that arrangement is set to expire on January 10, and with only a week to find a solution, diplomats said Friday they had no progress to report so far. Several also said there had not yet been any discussion of how this week's killing by the US of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani might affect matters in Syria, where some factions under his sway play a role. In a first closed-door meeting Friday, Security Council delegates were briefed by the under- secretaries general for political and humanitarian affairs, respectively Rosemary DiCarlo and Mark Lowcock. The council issued no statement afterward. Two other closed-door sessions were held on the aid question. The first brought together the council's five permanent members -- the US, Britain, France, Russia and China. The second involved the 10 non-permanent members, all of whom support a continuation of cross-border aid even without Damascus' permission, one diplomat said. When the council took up the matter on December 20, Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would have authorized continued aid deliveries for a year through four border points -- two with Turkey, one with Jordan and one with Iraq. Damascus maintains that only 800,000 people in Idlib are in need of aid. Russia has said it would support only a six-month extension, involving only two passage points on the Turkish-Syrian border. An earlier Russian draft proposal to that effect won only nine of the 15 Security Council votes needed for approval. Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told reporters on Friday that there was "no longer any justification for cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid." He added that all aid must pass through Damascus. Referring to Idlib, he said: "The Syrian government is determined not to give up its rights and duty as a sovereign state to eliminate the last stronghold of terrorism."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2065891/no-progress-despite-intense-security-council-talks-idlib
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