ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2020) Ankara considers it important to continue work of the Bab al-Hawa checkpoint on the Syrian-Turkish border for humanitarian aid deliveries to the Arab republic, but regrets the exclusion of the Bab al-Salam crossing from the UN mechanism, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The UN mandates for the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam crossings from Turkey expired on Friday. On Saturday, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a German-Belgian resolution to extend humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria via Bab al-Hawa for one year. It came after Russia and China vetoed the previous draft that sought to maintain the use of two crossings due to principled differences over the aid delivery mechanism. This time, the two UNSC permanent members, as well as the Dominican Republic abstained.
"This UN mechanism plays a vital role in delivering humanitarian aid to nearly 2.8 million people in need in northwestern Syria. In this regard, it is important that the mechanism was preserved, although reduced to a single border crossing. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that this time, the UNSC resolution did not include the Bab al-Salam border crossing, which is an important element of the mechanism," the ministry said in a statement.
According to Ankara, the exclusion of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from the mechanism will hinder delivering of humanitarian aid to civilians in Syria's Aleppo. The ministry also stressed that Turkey would continue to "make efforts for uninterrupted support of international humanitarian activities in Syria."
