MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th June, 2021) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin held phone negotiations with Sonja Hyland, political director of the Irish Foreign Ministry, discussing the situation in Syria, including the supply of humanitarian aid to the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
"There was an exchange of views on the situation in Syria with focus on resolving vital humanitarian problems, including the supply of humanitarian aid informally overseen in the UN Security Council by Ireland and Norway," the statement read.
Russia confirmed the necessity to follow the leading principles of humanitarian assistance and commitments to Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in compliance with the UN resolutions.
The discussions took place on Friday, according to the statement published on Monday.
In July, Syria's Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border will expire as the only remaining checkpoint for the aid supply to the country. Western countries and the UN insist on prolonging the current mechanism for transboundary aid delivery established in 2014. However, Russia and Syria suppose that this instrument lost its relevance, saying that now Damascus is able to direct convoys by itself as it returned control over most part of the country's territory.
On Friday, Ireland and Norway proposed a draft resolution providing the one-year extension of the Bab al-Hawa crossing and the one-year opening of the Al-Yaarubiyah checkpoint on the Syrian-Iraqi border for supplying aid.
