ISTANBUL: NGOs working in Syria warned Friday of a humanitarian disaster unless Russia and the West can overcome their differences at the United Nations and renew a resolution allowing aid deliveries.
The UN Security Council was set to vote later on Friday on extending cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria, but Russia has been pushing for a reduction in aid that has set up a showdown with the West, according to diplomats.
“Unless a miracle happens today the Syrian people will be left without humanitarian aid,” said Ghasan Hitto, president of the Syrian Forum at a press conference in Istanbul that gathered 19 NGOs working in Syria.
“This crossborder resolution is extremely important, this is how aid flows from various countries, from Jordan, from Lebanon, from Turkey into Syria,” he added.
The authorization for the aid, which enters the country without the formal permission of the regime in Damascus, has been in place since 2014 and is set to expire on Friday.
For the NGOs, the issue has become critical as Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, intensify attacks on the last rebel stronghold of Idlib.
Zaher Sahlul, director of MedGlobal, said 360,000 people had been displaced in Idlib in the last three weeks alone, and one million since April.
“The situation is beyond catastrophic,” he said.
“We need the cross-border resolution today,” added Zahed Al-Masri, of Physicians Across Continents.
“If the negotiations do not succeed millions will die.”
Four million Syrians directly benefit from the cross-border aid shipments.
A vote on December 20 saw the Security Council’s 15 members split as Russia and China vetoed a European proposal to extend the aid entering through three spots in Turkey and Iraq for a year.
A competing Russian resolution included only two entry points at the Turkish border and would have extended the authorization for only six months, but it failed to get the minimum nine votes.
Syria NGOs plead for new aid resolution at UN
https://arab.news/gb7uc
Syria NGOs plead for new aid resolution at UN
- The UN Security Council was set to vote later on Friday on extending cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria, but Russia has been pushing for a reduction in aid that has set up a showdown with the West
- The authorization for the aid, which enters the country without the formal permission of the regime in Damascus, has been in place since 2014 and is set to expire on Friday
Iran FM tells UN all military bases of ‘hostile forces’ legitimate targets
- UN chief condemns escalation, calls for immediate return to negotiating table
- Emergency session of Security Council set to convene on Saturday in New York
NEW YORK: Iran will use “all necessary defensive capabilities and means” to confront attacks by the US and Israel, and will treat “all bases, facilities, and assets of the hostile forces in the region” as legitimate military targets under its right to self-defense, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council, Araghchi said US and Israeli airstrikes are “a clear violation” of the UN Charter and amount to “an open armed aggression” against Iran.
Tehran is exercising its “inherent and lawful right of self-defense” under the UN Charter, he added.
The letter, seen by Arab News, accused the US and Israel of launching coordinated, large-scale attacks on Iranian territory, targeting defensive facilities and civilian sites in several cities.
Araghchi said Iran will continue to act “decisively and without hesitation until the aggression ceases fully and unequivocally,” adding that the US and Israel “shall bear full and direct responsibility for all ensuing consequences, including any escalation arising from their unlawful actions.”
He called on the 15-member Security Council to convene an emergency meeting to address a “breach of peace which is a real and serious threat to international peace and security,” and urged UN member states to “unequivocally condemn this act of aggression.”
An emergency session of the council is set to convene in New York on Saturday, requested by France, Bahrain, Colombia, China and Russia.
The Russian mission at the UN said in a statement that during the meeting, Moscow will demand that the US and Israel “immediately cease their illegal and escalatory actions and embark on a path toward a political and diplomatic settlement.” It added that “Russia is willing to provide all necessary assistance in this process.”
Meanwhile, Guterres condemned the military escalation, saying “the use of force by the United States and Israel against Iran, and the subsequent retaliation by Iran across the region, undermine international peace and security.”
The UN Charter clearly prohibits “the threat of the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations,” Guterres said in a statement.
He called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation, and an immediate return to the negotiating table, adding that “failing to do so risks a wider regional conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”
UN human rights chief Volker Turk also deplored the escalation and warned that civilians are the ones who end up paying “the ultimate price.”
He said: “Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction and human misery.”
Turk called for restraint and implored the parties “to see reason, to de-escalate, and (return) to the ‘negotiating table’ where they had been actively seeking a solution only hours earlier.”
