ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Officials have called for a key border crossing connecting Iraq with Kurdish-administered areas of northern Syria, also known as Rojava, to be reopened for aid amid severe food and medical shortages.
Germany and Belgium submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council in mid-June which would reopen the al-Yarubiyah crossing, connecting Rojava with Rabia in Nineveh province, for six months, as well as extending approval of border crossings between Syria and Turkey for one year.
"A sustained large-scale cross-border response will continue to be necessary to meet the enormous humanitarian needs of the people in northeast Syria. That is clear. That is what we have been saying. This has come up in conversations and in exchanges between the secretary general and members of the council," Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Rudaw.
Since 2014, a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution had allowed UN agencies to operate through key crossings without needing to get permission from Damascus beforehand every time – although the government did have to be notified.
In January, Syrian President Bashar al- Assad's ally Russia pressured humanitarian groups to funnel aid deliveries via Damascus. Russia and China shot down a UNSC proposal to continue allowing aid to pass through the al-Yarubiyah crossing, closing a key lifeline into northeast Syria.
The crossing had been used mainly to deliver medical supplies to the northeast. UN officials say the crossing from Iraq is essential to bring in supplies to fight against the novel coronavirus.
“Failure to renew cross-border aid will cause unnecessary suffering and deaths, and COVID-19 could spread like wildfire. Surely Russia can’t want that,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director for Human Rights Watch.
Dujarric also said that the UN cannot dispatch aid from Iraq borders to Syria without the consent of the Security Council and "will act and follow whatever authority they give us."
Christoph Heusgen, German Ambassador to the United Nations says that they will push for the crossing to be reopened.
"The humanitarian needs are such that we need cross-border possibilities to get to the people... half a year ago we had similar discussions and we pushed for the opening. At the time, we were confronted with vetos by Russia and by China," Heusgen said at a press conference.
The draft resolution is expected to be voted on by the UNSC next week. If passed, the six-month-long humanitarian embargo will come to an end.
“The pandemic presents “a profound challenge to Syria´s health system, socioeconomic and humanitarian situations” and “heightens the imperative of using every possible means of reaching people in need, ” reads the draft resolution.
