NEW YORK: Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended cross-border aid to Syria by one year without Damascus’s backing.
The authorization for aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab Al-Hawa, which has been in effect since 2014, is set to expire Sunday.
The aid is a lifeline for more than 2.4 million people in the northwestern Idlib region of Syria, under the control of jihadists and rebels.
Thirteen of the fifteen Council members voted in favor of the text. China, which often votes the same way as Russia, chose to abstain.
The vote had been due to be held Thursday but was scrapped following disagreement between Russia and the West.
Moscow is seeking a six-month extension. Sunday’s deadline still leaves time for members of the Security Council to find common ground, observers note.
The vetoed text, proposed by Norway and Ireland, would have provided for a six-month extension until mid-January 2023, and then an additional six-month extension “unless the Council decides otherwise.”
The extension would also be conditional on a “substantive report” by the secretary-general, including on the operation’s transparency, progress on channeling aid across the front line, and progress on meeting humanitarian needs.
Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through Bab Al-Hawa last year, bound for the rebel-held Idlib region in northwestern Syria. It is the only crossing through which aid can be brought into Idlib without navigating areas controlled by Syrian government forces.
Moscow, an ally of Damascus, has curtailed a number of Western-backed measures in recent years.
It views the authorization as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and believes the delivery of aid to the northwest region should only be carried out from Damascus across the front line.
Russia had hinted in recent months that it would oppose an extension, having already forced a reduction in the number of allowed border crossings.
![]()
Russia vetoes UN resolution extending cross-border aid to Syria
Short Url
https://arab.news/5h7sc
Russia vetoes UN resolution extending cross-border aid to Syria
Fresh Israeli strikes on Gaza, hospital says four dead
- A Gaza hospital said four people were killed Thursday in fresh Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian territory, as Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the fragile weeks-long ceasefire
GAZA CITY: A Gaza hospital said four people were killed Thursday in fresh Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian territory, as Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the fragile weeks-long ceasefire.
The new strikes came the morning after one of the deadliest days in the Gaza Strip since the truce came into effect on October 10, with 27 people killed, according to Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority.
The Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza said four people were killed in the strikes early Thursday, after the civil defence agency gave a lower toll of three dead.
The dead included three from one family, including a one-year-old girl, in a strike on a house east of Khan Yunis, and one person in an air strike on the town of Abasan al-Kabira, also east of Khan Yunis.
A source at Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry, who did not wish to be identified, said artillery fire was continuing in the Khan Yunis area.
The so-called yellow line demarcates the boundary inside the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have withdrawn to positions east of, as part of the US-brokered ceasefire.
"We are aware of a strike east of the yellow line that was done to dismantle terror infrastructures," the Israeli military told AFP.
"We're not aware of the reported casualties. It's part of the regular IDF (Israeli military) operations east of the yellow line."
Israel has carried out repeated strikes against what it says are Hamas targets during the ceasefire, resulting in the death of more than 312 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
"These ongoing crimes represent a blatant disregard by the occupation for the ceasefire agreement," Hamas said in a statement.
The Islamist movement urged US President Donald Trump and other mediators of the truce to "take serious action to stop these crimes".
The UN Security Council voted Monday in favour of a US-drafted resolution endorsing Trump's Gaza peace plan, though Hamas rejected the resolution as failing to meet Palestinians' "political and humanitarian demands".
The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,546 people, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
The new strikes came the morning after one of the deadliest days in the Gaza Strip since the truce came into effect on October 10, with 27 people killed, according to Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority.
The Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza said four people were killed in the strikes early Thursday, after the civil defence agency gave a lower toll of three dead.
The dead included three from one family, including a one-year-old girl, in a strike on a house east of Khan Yunis, and one person in an air strike on the town of Abasan al-Kabira, also east of Khan Yunis.
A source at Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry, who did not wish to be identified, said artillery fire was continuing in the Khan Yunis area.
The so-called yellow line demarcates the boundary inside the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have withdrawn to positions east of, as part of the US-brokered ceasefire.
"We are aware of a strike east of the yellow line that was done to dismantle terror infrastructures," the Israeli military told AFP.
"We're not aware of the reported casualties. It's part of the regular IDF (Israeli military) operations east of the yellow line."
Israel has carried out repeated strikes against what it says are Hamas targets during the ceasefire, resulting in the death of more than 312 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
"These ongoing crimes represent a blatant disregard by the occupation for the ceasefire agreement," Hamas said in a statement.
The Islamist movement urged US President Donald Trump and other mediators of the truce to "take serious action to stop these crimes".
The UN Security Council voted Monday in favour of a US-drafted resolution endorsing Trump's Gaza peace plan, though Hamas rejected the resolution as failing to meet Palestinians' "political and humanitarian demands".
The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 69,546 people, according to figures from the health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.