UN, United States: The UN Security Council is due to vote again Saturday on an extension of cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria after Russia and China vetoed a previous measure to the chagrin of Western member states.
Authorization for the transport of aid to war-torn Syria, a system in place since 2014, expired Friday following the two countries’ veto earlier in the day and the subsequent rejection of a counterproposal by Moscow.
Saturday’s vote will be on a new draft text submitted overnight by Germany and Belgium, which would provide for a single aid access point into Syria.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called in a tweet Saturday “on all delegations to no longer obstruct a compromise.”
European countries and the US had wanted to maintain two crossing points on the Turkish border — at Bab Al-Salam, which leads to the Aleppo region, and Bab Al-Hawa, which serves the Idlib region.
The latest draft measure calls only for the Bab Al-Hawa crossing to be maintained “for a period of twelve months,” according to a text obtained by AFP. The Council would also ask the UN secretary-general for a report “at least every 60 days.”
UN authorization allows the international body to distribute aid to displaced Syrians without needing permission from Damascus.
But Russia and China argue that the authorization violates Syria’s sovereignty, and that aid can increasingly be channeled through Syrian authorities.
Russia, Syria’s closest ally, has for weeks argued that Bab Al-Salam should be removed as an access point, particularly as it leads to the Aleppo region.
Bab Al-Hawa, on the other hand, allows for aid to be funneled to nearly four million people in the insurgent Idlib region, which the Syrian regime does not control.
Western member states reject Russia’s arguments that authorization for cross-border aid violates Syrian sovereignty.
Those countries maintain that there is no credible alternative to the cross-border system and argue that Syrian bureaucracy and politics are preventing an effective flow of aid in areas not controlled by the Syrian regime.
The US has gone so far as to describe having two entry points as “a red line.”
The 15 members of the Security Council have until midday Saturday to submit amendments to the latest text before the vote.
Russia has asked for two things — a mention of the impact of unilateral sanctions on Syria (an implicit jab at the United States and Europe), and a statement acknowledging improvements in aid delivery carried out under the Syrian regime.
However, those amendments have little chance of being adopted.
China, for its part, has called for an amendment highlighting the work of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, “in particular his appeal for an immediate global cease-fire.”
In January, Moscow succeeded in having the crossing points reduced from four to two and in limiting the authorization to six months instead of a year.
This week Russia and China exercised their veto rights as permanent members twice — on Tuesday and Friday — even as NGOs and Western countries accused them of politicizing a humanitarian issue.
To be adopted, Saturday’s draft text must get at least nine of the 15 votes, with none of the five permanent members voting against the measure.
Friday’s vetoes by Moscow and Beijing marked the 16th for Russia and 10th for China on texts linked to Syria since the war began in 2011.
In a report in June, Guterres called for a one-year extension of the aid to include the two current access points.
UN to vote on reduced extension of cross-border aid to Syria
https://arab.news/jsc6w
UN to vote on reduced extension of cross-border aid to Syria
- Saturday’s vote will be on a new draft text which would provide for a single aid access point into Syria
- Western member states reject Russia’s arguments that authorization for cross-border aid violates Syrian sovereignty
UN Security Council members blast Israel’s West Bank plans on eve of Trump’s Board of Peace meeting
- Pakistan denounced Israel’s contentious West Bank settlement project during the meeting as a “clear violation of international law”
- Pakistan is the only country on the 15-member council that also accepted an invitation to join US President Trump's Board of Peace
UNITED NATIONS: Members of the United Nations Security Council called Wednesday for the Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent and blasted Israeli efforts to expand control in the West Bank as a threat to prospects of a two-state solution, coming on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first Board of Peace gathering to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories.
The high-level UN session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board’s meeting for the same day and it became clear that it would complicate travel plans for diplomats planning to attend both. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations’ most powerful body and Trump’s new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the UN Security Council.
Pakistan, the only country on the 15-member council that also accepted an invitation to join the Board of Peace, denounced Israel’s contentious West Bank settlement project during the meeting as “null and void” and said it constitutes a “clear violation of international law.”
“Israel’s recent illegal decisions to expand its control over the West Bank are gravely disturbing,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.
The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia also attended the Security Council’s monthly Mideast meeting after many Arab and Islamic countries requested last week that it discuss Gaza and the West Bank before some of them head to Washington.
“Annexation is a breach of the UN Charter and of the most fundamental rules of international law,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said. “It is a breach of President Trump’s plan, and constitutes an existential threat to ongoing peace efforts.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that attention was not on the UN session and that the focus of the international world would be on the Board of Peace meeting.
Saar also accused the council of being “infected with an anti-Israeli obsession” and insisted that no nation has a stronger right than its “historical and documented right to the land of the Bible.”
Bigger ambitions for the Board of Peace
The board to be chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his 20-point plan for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president’s new vision for the board to be a mediator of worldwide conflicts has led to skepticism from major allies.
While more than 20 countries have so far accepted an invitation to join the board, close US partners, including France, Germany and others, have opted not to join yet and renewed support for the UN, which also is in the throes of major reforms and funding cuts.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said there is an opportunity for the UN’s most powerful body to help build “a better future” for Israelis and Palestinians despite the “cycle of violence and suffering” over the more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas.
“Gaza must not get stuck in a no man’s land between peace and war,” Cooper said as she opened the meeting.
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, appeared to criticize countries that had not yet signed on to the Board of Peace, saying that unlike the Security Council, the board is “not talking, it is doing.”
“We are hearing the chattering class criticizing the structure of the board, that it’s unconventional, that it’s unprecedented,” Waltz said Wednesday. “Again, the old ways were not working.”
The Security Council is meeting a day after nearly all of its 15 members — minus the United States — and dozens of other diplomats joined Palestinian ambassador Mansour as he read a statement on behalf of 80 countries and several organizations condemning Israel’s latest actions in the West Bank, demanding an immediate reversal and underlining “strong opposition to any form of annexation.”
In the last several weeks, Israel has launched a contentious land regulation process that will deepen its control in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said it amounts to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Outraged Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves an illegal annexation of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
‘A pivotal moment in the Middle East’
The UN meeting also delved into the US-brokered ceasefire deal that took effect Oct. 10. UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo and Israeli and Palestinian civil society representatives gave briefings for the first time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that launched the war.
Hiba Qasas, a Palestinian who is founding executive director of Geneva-based Principles for Peace Foundation, and Nadav Tamir, a former Israeli diplomat who is executive director of J Street Israel, both said they represent a strong coalition of Israelis and Palestinians who believe the only way to end the conflict is through a two-state solution.
“Israel cannot remain the democratic homeland of the Jewish people if Palestinians are denied a homeland of their own. Our futures are interdependent,” Tamir said.
DiCarlo of the UN said this is “a pivotal moment in the Middle East” that opens the possibility for the region to move in a new direction. “But that opening is neither assured nor indefinite,” she said, and whether it will be sustained depends on decisions in the coming weeks.
“The Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C., tomorrow is an important step,” she said.
Aspects of the ceasefire deal have moved forward, including Hamas releasing all the hostages it was holding and increased amounts of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, though the UN says the level is insufficient. A new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer Gaza’s daily affairs.
But the most challenging steps lie ahead, including the deployment of an international security force, disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.
Trump said this week that the Board of Peace members have pledged $5 billion toward Gaza reconstruction and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory. He didn’t provide details. Indonesia’s military says up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission.
