Russia says UN humanitarian aid is an infringement of Syria’s sovereignty
According to TASS news agency, during a speech to the UN Security Council, Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, stated that the current mechanism for cross-border operations to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria cannot be maintained, although it was authorized by the Security Council.
“In its present form, this mechanism cannot be preserved. It infringes on the sovereignty of Syria and contradicts the principles of emergency humanitarian assistance agreed upon by the UN General Assembly,” said Nebenzya.
The Russian Ambassador said that at the time, cross-border supplies of humanitarian aid without the official consent of Damascus were an emergency measure, but now this mechanism “requires reassessment.”
The resolution on the cross-border supply of humanitarian assistance to Syria without the consent of the country’s government was adopted by the UN Security Council in 2014. At that time, Bashar Assad’s government controlled less than half of the country’s territory. The border crossings with Jordan and Turkey were mostly controlled by opposition fighters.
On November 27, complaints about the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria from Russian military personnel were made about the United States. At the Reconciliation Center, it was stated that the United States had created a 55-kilometer security zone around its At-Tanf base in the south, thereby limiting access to humanitarian aid for 50,000 local people and refugees.
The village of At-Tanf near the Syrian-Jordanian border is controlled by the United States and moderate opposition groups. The United States occupied this area to prepare the New Syrian Army, the declared objective of which was the struggle against the Islamic State. In the summer of 2017, government troops surrounded the At-Tanf area and cut it off from contact with the Islamic State. Despite this, the United States does not allow Syrian troops into this territory, and when government troops have tried to advance, they have been hit with air strikes.