UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2020) The members of the UN Security Council were not able to reach an agreement and adopt resolution seeking to re-authorize the cross-border aid deliveries into northwestern Syria for another year, UN Security Council President Christoph Heusgen said in a statement.
"The draft resolution has not been adopted, owing to the negative votes of two permanent members of the Council," Heusgen said on Tuesday.
Russia and China used their veto powers to block the draft prepared by Belgium and Germany to preserve the UN mechanism, set to expire on July 10, a diplomatic source at the United Nations told Sputnik. The draft advocated for keeping the two current border crossings - Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam - from Turkey.
Following the vote, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said the permanent mission had already introduced a new resolution that aims to sustain the cross-border mechanism in Syria for six months, excluding the border crossing of Bab al-Salam.
"We produced our own text, which we circulated recently, and I hope that we can adopt it," Nebenzia said before the Security Council.
In a statement explaining the vote, the Russian Mission said that Bab al-Hawa border crossing, used for about 90 percent of UN deliveries to Idlib, will be sufficient to provide humanitarian assistance to all people need in Idlib.
The existing cross-border delivery mechanism that was established by the Security Council in 2014 as a temporary measure does not reflect the reality on the ground anymore, the statement also said.
With the transfer of northwestern territories under the control of Damascus and the progress reached in delivering aid from within the country, the council should return to providing assistance based on the respect for Syria's sovereignty and having obtained consent, the statement added.
In January, the Security Council reduced the number of border crossings from the initial four, including al-Ramtha from Jordan and al-Yarubiyah from Iraq, to only two checkpoints from Turkey.
