Syrian Bashar al-Assad could take credit for allowing the UN to open new checkpoints and make it look like he ended up leading the opposition’s territory, critics say.
On Tuesday, a convoy of 11 United Nations agency trucks crossed the border into northern Syria from Turkey, just hours after the UN and the Syrian government reached an agreement to temporarily allow two new border crossings into an opposition-held enclave devastated by a deadly earthquake in the region. .
Syrian officials in Damascus said the decision, taken seven days after the 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes that killed thousands, showed their commitment to supporting victims on both sides of the front lines. An increase in the flow of aid was desperately needed, but it came at a cost.
The UN is usually only authorized to bring aid from Turkey to northwest Syria – an area already devastated by 12 years of conflict – through the Bab el-Hawa border crossing alone.
Extending that permit is a regular battle in the Security Council, with Assad’s ally Russia advocating that all aid be channeled through Damascus.
The delay in opening new crossings has halted immediate relief and search and rescue efforts as “the time for effective search and rescue is tragically running out,” the International Rescue Committee said in a statement.
Asked why it took so long to increase aid access to the northwest, Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bassam Sabbah told reporters: “Why are you asking me? We do not control these borders.”
Damascus’ move to open additional border crossings a week after the earthquake was more political than humanitarian, said Joseph Daer, a Swiss-Syrian researcher and professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
“This is a way for the regime to reaffirm its sovereignty, its central role and use this tragedy for its own political purposes,” he said.
Prior to the Damascus deal, supporters had pushed for the Security Council to vote to permanently open more border crossings for aid delivery, a move that would almost certainly be vetoed by Russia.
Russian opposition
Others argue that the UN does not need a Security Council resolution to send aid across borders in an emergency. Daher noted that the UN airdropped aid to the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor when it was besieged by ISIS fighters.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning attempts to “push through” a permanent expansion of permitted crossings.
It says Western countries “continue to choke” Syria with sanctions that they say have sparked a fuel crisis and “banned imports of vital goods and equipment.”
The US, UK and EU have imposed sanctions on Assad and oppose sending aid to the northwest through his government, believing it will redirect aid to his supporters.
A State Department spokesman told the AP on Tuesday that Washington will push for a UN resolution to allow additional crossings as soon as possible. Last week, the United States issued a license to provide earthquake relief without sanctions.
The UK welcomed the temporary reopening of the new crossings, but said “sufficient access needs to be ensured in the long term”.
When the earthquake hit, the UN was unable to immediately gain access to Bab el-Hawa due to infrastructure damage, leaving the devastated enclave without substantial assistance for 72 hours.
Northwestern Syria’s civil defense organization, the White Helmets, said the delayed aid and the UN’s failure to take unorthodox measures in the first few days cost lives as they struggled with limited equipment and manpower to rescue thousands of people trapped under the rubble.
On Sunday, the UN tried to send humanitarian aid to opposition-held Idlib through government-controlled territory, but the delivery was halted after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham refused to accept aid coming from Assad-controlled areas.
The standoff was “politically good … for both sides,” Daher said, allowing the opposition “to say, ‘I’m not collaborating with the regime,’ and the regime to say, ‘Look, we tried to send aid.’ “
Political advantage
Meanwhile, cargo planes carrying humanitarian aid have reached government-controlled territory, including from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt — countries that once shunned Assad and have been slowly rebuilding ties in recent years.
Agreeing to temporary additional crossings is Assad’s political advantage, says Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
The decision “goes against everything the regime has publicly held for the past 10+ years when it comes to cross-border aid delivery,” Lister said, referring to Syria and Russia’s attempts to end the UN’s cross-border aid mechanism.
But with this deal, the Syrian government “knows that it has proven to the world that the United Nations is not willing to do anything in Syria without the permission of the regime.”
Sariya Akkad, partnerships and advocacy manager for the Ataa Humanitarian Aid Association, which operates in Turkey and northwest Syria, said Syrians like him now see their UN advocacy as pointless. “Perhaps we should go back to Assad, we should discuss with the man who killed his people how he can support the people in northwest Syria,” he said.
Lister said the current crisis has allowed Assad to “lure the international community towards normalization,” though he does not expect a complete end to his political isolation without major moves from Washington and London.
Syrian officials have urged the UN to fund the reconstruction, and Lister believes that, in addition to lifting Western sanctions, is what Damascus is hoping for.
The temporary permit expires in three months, around the time negotiations are taking place, before the UN Security Council meets in July to consider a cross-border resolution. Lister believes Assad’s deal with the UN could allow him to demand more in exchange for the resolution remaining in place without a Russian veto.
“I think we candidly saw yesterday how the UN politicized the delivery of aid by reaching out to the regime to secure access to a border crossing that they don’t control,” he said. “He put all his eggs in the regime’s basket.”
