Syria’s UN ambassador announced on Thursday that the government will permit humanitarian aid to pass through its main border crossing into rebel-held territories, reopening a channel that had been shut following a Security Council impasse.
According to ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, Damascus has made a “sovereign decision” to permit aid to enter Syria from Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa crossing for a period of six months beginning on Thursday.
He claimed to have written Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council a letter to this effect.
According to a 2014 agreement, the UN mostly sends aid to northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing in neighboring Turkey.
However, a UN agreement that had allowed this mechanism to operate without Damascus’ consent ended on Monday.
According to the UN, more than 4 million people in northwest Syria are in need of basic necessities like food, water, medicine, and other supplies.
During a vote at UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Russia first vetoed a nine-month extension of the accord and then couldn’t muster enough support to approve a six-month extension.
According to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, the UN was reviewing Sabbagh’s letter.
There were still two more crossings open even after the Bab al-Hawa border was closed.
Following an earthquake in February that killed tens of thousands of people in Turkey and northwest Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad opened them.
But Bab al-Hawa was the conduit through which 85% of supplies entered areas controlled by the rebels.
