Syria extends humanitarian aid deliveries via Turkey to rebel-held zone for six months

The Syrian government late Thursday extended its mandate for the approval of humanitarian aid to be delivered through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey, the sole artery for UN supplies for the rebel held northwest of the country.

The UN had been using four border crossings to deliver relief to areas outside the Syrian government’s control under the terms of a UN resolution approved by the Security Council in 2014. However, since 2017, Russia and China have been steadily chipping away at the mandate on the grounds that all aid should be delivered via Damascus, part of an ongoing effort to bolster the legitimacy of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Since 2020, Russia and China have agreed to only one crossing, Bab al-Hawa, to remain open for aid. That mandate expired in July 2023 after fellow Security Council members declined to accept Russia’s proposal to extend it by a further six months, saying that the term should be extended to a year.

The upshot was that the UN was left striking an agreement with the Syrian government for further extensions, a win for the Assad regime. It has so far, at Russia’s urging, continued to approve UN aid to cross through Bab al-Hawa.   

This is partly in deference to Turkey. Any major food crisis could provoke a mass influx of refugees into Turkey, which already hosts more than 3.7 million Syrians displaced by the civil conflict. Anti-refugee sentiments are sharpening by the day and Turkish border guards use live ammunition to prevent Syrians seeking to cross illegally. Human Rights Watch, a New York based watchdog, reported April last year that Turkish border guards were shooting “indiscriminately” at Syrian civilians on the border as well as “torturing and using excessive force against asylum seekers and migrants trying to cross into Turkey. At least two people were killed by border guards, it said.