“The Secretary-General welcomes the understanding reached yesterday by the United Nations and the Government of Syria on the continued use for the next six months of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing,” read a statement from Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He added that the agreement had been reached on Monday.
The border crossing opening comes after talks between the UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and Syrian officials, according to the statement from Haq.
The statement regarding Bab al-Hawa followed an earlier announcement that Damascus has agreed on keeping two other crossings to the northwest, Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai, open for three months until November 13.
“The consent reaffirmed by Syria in recent days provides a basis for the UN and its partners to lawfully conduct cross-border humanitarian operations through Bab al-Hawa,” he added.
The Bab al-Hawa cross-border mechanism is the only way UN aid, including food, medicine, water, and other critical resources, can be delivered to northwest Syria without having to traverse through areas controlled by the Syrian government. The crossing has been in use by the UN since 2014.
In July, the UN Security Council was unable to renew the agreement that enabled the delivery of aid to Syria. This was due to Russia vetoing the proposed draft, sparking concern among the international community for the millions of aid-dependent residents in the region.
The province of Idlib in northwest Syria is the last pocket of rebel-held territory in the region and is mainly controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.
The area’s residents, including families displaced from across the country, also suffer from dire economic conditions and rely heavily on aid for their basic necessities. According to the UN, the humanitarian assistance provided through the cross-border mechanism reached “an average of 2.7 million people every month” in 2022.
