UNITED NATIONS, June 30. /TASS/. Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya doubts that the West is concerned about ordinary citizens of Syria when it calls for extending the cross-border aid mechanism.

"With this approach, a question begs itself. Who is it that we are going to adopt a new CBM resolution for? It does not seem that for the Syrians. More likely, for the terrorists who hide out in Idlib. If we truly worry about the people of Syria and Syrian refugees, then it is about time our Western colleagues changed their hypocritical approach," he told a Syria-themed session of the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Russia urges the penholders of the Syrian humanitarian file in the Security Council "to proceed from the true interests of the much-suffered Syrian people who reside in the territories controlled by the internationally recognized Syrian government" when working on a draft humanitarian resolution for Syria, rather than "get carried away politicizing humanitarian aspects and playing a giveaway game with the UN and Idlib-based terrorists."

In his words, Syrian armed groups based in Idlib "have developed a close and, as we can see, rather fruitful collaboration with Mr.David Carden, the UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, who also happens to be a British national" since February.

On January 9, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution extending the cross-border aid mechanism in Syria for six more months. This decision extended the July 12, 2022 resolution on the cross-border aid mechanism, which envisages the operation of only one aid corridor at Bab al-Hawa on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Under the resolution, the United Nations secretary general is to issue a special report on Syria’s humanitarian demands by June 10. Unlike the previous documents on the cross-border aid mechanism, the resolution has no provision on the extension of the mechanism for six more months after the expiration of its current term.