Russia proposes 6-month cross-border aid renewal for Syria

It also would authorize the establishment of a special working group comprising concerned council members, major donors, interested regional parties and representatives of international humanitarian agencies in order to regularly review and follow-up on the implementation of this resolution. Neither of those proposals were in the Ireland-Norway draft resolution.Northwest Idlib is the last rebel-held bastion in Syria and a region where an al-Qaida-linked militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is the strongest.

As the UN Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on humanitarian aid deliveries to rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey, Russia agreed to continue such deliveries but only for six months — not a year, as many U.N. Security Council members, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and more than 30 non-governmental groups want.

The Security Council delayed a vote scheduled for Thursday morning to the afternoon while negotiations continued to try to bridge differences between the original draft resolution by Ireland and Norway, which would extend aid deliveries from Turkey through one border cross for a year, and a rival Russian text reducing the time to six months.

If no compromise is reached, the draft resolution by Ireland and Norway would be voted on first. If it fails to get nine votes, or is vetoed by Russia, the Russian resolution with a six-month extension would then be put to a vote.

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Idlib province. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021, and expires this Sunday.

The Russian proposal called for increased efforts to ensure “full, safe and unhindered” deliveries of humanitarian assistance across conflict lines within Syria, according to the Russian draft obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. It also would authorize the establishment of “a special working group” comprising concerned council members, major donors, interested regional parties and representatives of international humanitarian agencies “in order to regularly review and follow-up on the implementation of this resolution.” Neither of those proposals were in the Ireland-Norway draft resolution.

Northwest Idlib is the last rebel-held bastion in Syria and a region where an al-Qaida-linked militant group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is the strongest. The U.N. said last week that the first 10 years of the Syrian conflict, which started in 2011, killed more than 300,000 civilians — the highest official estimate of civilian casualties.

In a letter to Security Council ambassadors obtained Wednesday by the AP, former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo warned that by approving cross-border deliveries to northwest Syria, council members “could find themselves materially supporting a U.N.-designated terrorist organization.” Ocampo said northwestern Syria is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, a designated terrorist organization affiliated with al-Qaida. Any support to a ''terrorist organization, including humanitarian assistance,'' is prohibited by previous U.N. Security Council resolutions, he said. To avoid a “flagrant violation'' of its resolutions, he said the Security Council should have the operation monitoring cross-border deliveries confirm that the al Qaida-linked groups “are not involved in implementing humanitarian aid'' or remove Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from the terror list.