Critics say Assad may take credit for the aid transit deal
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His critics said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be credited with allowing the United Nations to open new crossings and giving the impression that he eventually fired bullets into territory held by opposition forces.
A convoy of 11 trucks from a United Nations agency crossed into northern Syria from Turkey on Tuesday, just hours after the United Nations and the Syrian government reached an agreement to temporarily allow two new border crossings into the opposition-held enclave, which was devastated by a deadly earthquake in the area. .
Syrian officials in Damascus said the decision, seven days after magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes killed thousands, shows their commitment to supporting victims on both sides of the front line. An increased flow of aid was badly needed, but at a price.
The United Nations is usually allowed to deliver aid from Turkey into northwestern Syria – an area already ravaged by 12 years of conflict – through only one border crossing, Bab al-Hawa.
Renewing that authorization is a regular battle in the Security Council, where Assad’s ally Russia has called for all aid to be channeled through Damascus.
The International Rescue Committee said in a statement that delays in opening new crossings halted immediate relief and search and rescue efforts when “time for effective search and rescue is tragically running out”.
Asked why it took so long to increase aid access to the northwest, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bassam al-Sabbagh, told reporters, “Why are you asking me? We don’t control these borders.”
Joseph Daher, a Swiss researcher and professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, said Damascus’ move to open additional border crossings a week after the earthquake was more political than humanitarian.
“It is a way for the regime to reassert its sovereignty and centrality and to exploit this tragedy for its own political purposes,” he said.
Prior to the agreement with Damascus, supporters had been pressing the Security Council to vote to permanently open more border crossings for the delivery of aid — a move that Russia would almost certainly oppose.
Russian opposition
Others argue that there is no need for a UN Security Council resolution to send aid across borders in an emergency. Daher noted that the United Nations had airdropped aid on the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor when it was besieged by ISIS fighters.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning attempts to “push” a permanent expansion of the authorized crossings.
It said Western countries were “continuing to suffocate” Syria with sanctions, which it said had caused a fuel crisis, and “banned the import of vital goods and equipment”.
The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Assad and oppose the diversion of aid to the northwest through his government, believing that it will divert aid to its supporters.
A US State Department spokesperson told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Washington would press for a UN resolution authorizing additional crossings as soon as possible. Last week, the United States issued a license to allow earthquake relief to bypass sanctions.
The UK welcomed the temporary opening of the new crossings, but said, “Adequate access must be secured in the long term”.
When the earthquake struck, the UN was unable to reach Bab al-Hawa immediately due to damage to infrastructure, leaving the shattered enclave without significant assistance for 72 hours.
Delays in providing aid and the failure of the United Nations to take unconventional measures in those first few days are taking lives, said the civil defense organization in northwest Syria, the White Helmets, as they struggled with limited equipment and manpower to rescue thousands of people trapped under the rubble.
The United Nations attempted to send an aid shipment to opposition-held Idlib via government-held territory on Sunday, but the shipment was halted after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham refused to accept aid coming from Assad-controlled areas.
That confrontation, Daher said, was “good politically… for both sides,” allowing the opposition “to say, ‘I’m not cooperating with the regime’ and for the regime to say, ‘Look, we tried to send aid.'” “
political advantage
Meanwhile, cargo planes loaded with aid have arrived in government-held territory, including from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt — countries that previously shunned Assad and have been slowly reviving relations in recent years.
Approving the additional, temporary crossings is in Assad’s political favor, says Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Lister said the decision “contradicts everything the regime has publicly stood for over the past 10 years with regard to cross-border aid deliveries,” referring to attempts by Syria and Russia to end the UN’s cross-border aid mechanism.
But with the agreement, the Syrian government “knows that it has proven to the world that the United Nations is not ready to do anything in Syria without the regime’s permission.”
Syrians like him now feel their call to the United Nations is pointless, said Saria al-Akkad, director of partnerships and advocacy for Ataa Humanitarian Relief, which works in Turkey and northwest Syria. He said, “Maybe we should go back to Assad, we should discuss with the person who killed his people, how he can support the people in northwest Syria.”
Lister said that the current crisis has allowed Assad to “entice the international community to normalization,” although he does not expect a complete end to his political isolation without major shifts from Washington and London.
Syrian officials have urged the United Nations to fund reconstruction, and Lister believes that this, in addition to the lifting of Western sanctions, is what Damascus hopes to get.
The temporary mandate expires in three months, at which time negotiations will take place before the UN Security Council meets in July to review the cross-border resolution. Lister believes that Assad’s agreement with the United Nations could allow him to demand more in exchange for allowing the resolution to continue without a Russian veto.
“I think what we saw frankly yesterday is the United Nations politicizing the delivery of aid by going to the regime to secure access to a border crossing that they do not control,” he said. She puts all her eggs in the basket of order.”