Russia has been accused of “an act of utter cruelty” after it used its veto at the UN security council to block a nine-month renewal of cross-border aid designed to help 4 million people living in rebel-held north-west Syria.
The vote throws into doubt the continued existence of the key aid route into Syria from Turkey, and represents another hammer blow to a population still reeling from the devastating earthquake that struck the region in February.
The aid operation has been delivering support including food, medicine and shelter since 2014, operating under UN authorisation, and the permission for the border crossing at Bab al-Hawa expired on Monday.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, had wanted a 12-month renewal, while Russia said it would accept only a six-month renewal. Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, warned that if Russia’s proposal for a six-month extension was not supported, “then we can just go ahead and close down the cross-border mechanism”.
The UK and 12 other council members voted to renew cross-border aid access for nine months, but Russia vetoed what was intended as a compromise between the position of Russia and the UN secretary general. Only Russia and China then voted in favour of Russia’s proposal for a six-month extension. Ten security council members abstained and the US, Britain and France voted against the Russian proposal.
To be adopted, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by any of the five permanent members of the security council.
Russia – which has previously cut the number of cross-border aid crossings – regards the aid routes as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
“It’s a sad moment for the Syrian people,” the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council after Russia’s veto. “What we have just witnessed, what the world has just witnessed, was an act of utter cruelty.”
Accusing Russia of behaving like a bully in the playground, Thomas-Greenfield complained Russia had told the UN that if its six-month offer was rejected, no deal was possible. She insisted: “We must keep at this – the Syrian people are counting on us – and we must all urge Russia to come back to the table in good faith.”
After the 7.8-intensity earthquake in Syria and Turkey in February, cross-border aid deliveries were temporarily allowed at the Bab al-Salam and al-Ra’ee crossings, but permissions for these expire on 13 August, meaning that if nothing changes, no aid will enter Syria over any land border.
The UN said in a statement it would “continue to advocate for expanding all avenues to deliver humanitarian assistance to millions of people in need in north-west Syria. The renewal of the authorisation is essential, as Bab al-Hawa remains the centre of gravity for the UN’s cross-border response, including being in close proximity to Idlib, where most of the people in need in north-west Syria live.”
Sofía Sprechmann Sineiro, Care International’s secretary general, described Russia’s veto as “a low point in the council’s humanitarian record since the start of the Syrian conflict”.
She said: “Today, the council has allowed politics to drive its decision, rather than the humanitarian needs of Syrian people.
“The UN security council’s decision will have catastrophic consequences for the region’s population of 4.1 million people whose survival depends on UN assistance. Within weeks, essential goods and services will become scarce and even less affordable.”
David Miliband, the chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said it defied reason and principle that the security council had voted not to maintain all avenues of aid access for vulnerable Syrians.
Aid workers said the vote would add to the sense of abandonment in northern Syria, which is still reeling from the impact of the earthquake. About 4,500 Syrians were killed, more than 10,000 were injured, and approximately 103,000 were made instantly homeless.
