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Russia puts for voting its edition of UNSC draft resolution on humanitarian aid to Syria

Earlier in the day, Russia and China vetoed Germany- and Belgium-initiated draft envisaging the extension of deliveries via two checkpoints

UNITED NATIONS, July 10. /TASS/. Russia has put for voting its edition of the United Nations Security Council draft resolution extending the cross-border humanitarian assistance mechanism to Syria via one checkpoint at the border with Turkey, a spokesman for the Russian mission to the United Nations told TASS.

Earlier in the day, Russia and China vetoed Germany- and Belgium-initiated draft envisaging the extension of deliveries via two checkpoints.

"We have put in blue a draft Security Council resolution which will allow cross-border humanitarian deliveries to Idlib in Syria through crossing point Bab-el-Hawa for one year. This border-crossing accounts for more than 85% of total volume of operations," he wrote on his Twitter account. "The rest can be readjusted through this border point and through the crossline taking into account in particular, the changes on the ground, where we face the decrease of the de-escalation zone by 30% lately."

Moscow explains the need to scale down the cross-border humanitarian assistance mechanism in Syria by the changed situation on the ground, with more and more territories being controlled by the government. He insisted that assistance be delivered from inside the country in coordination with Damascus, in full compliance with international humanitarian law.

Actually, it is the last chance to extend the cross-border humanitarian assistance mechanism which is expiring on July 11. Due to the quarantine measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, decision making procedures in the Security Council are carried out in the written form. The results will be known when all the 15 Security Council member nations submit their votes to the chairman.

The decision to launch cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria was passed in July 2014 as a response measure to the dramatic decrease in access to the population because of heated hostilities. Thus, Resolution 2165 stipulates the establishment of several checkpoints at Syria’s borders and the deployment of a United Nations monitoring mission to inspect incoming cargoes to prevent weapons supplies.

In January 2020, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution extending the cross-border aid mechanism for six months but reducing the number of checkpoints from four to two.