After days of negotiations, the cross-border aid mechanism should continue for six months. The United Nations reports that the resolution is to be voted on Tuesday.
The United Nations’ Syria aid will probably be extended for six months after all. The mechanism that allows the UN to bring relief supplies to the north-east of the country, which is not controlled by the government in Damascus, expired on Sunday. The UN reported on Tuesday that a resolution put forward by Ireland and Norway is to be voted on in the UN Security Council on the same day.
United Nations aid to Syria is based on a 2014 resolution and is primarily focused on the north-east, where around 4.4 million people live, according to the UN. Most people there are dependent on humanitarian aid, more than half of them are displaced persons and refugees who have been living in camps for many years.
Aid organizations have been warning of a hunger crisis for a long time if the Security Council does not decide to extend it. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for an extension of aid to Syria in a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin. The Foreign Office also called for an agreement on Monday. Should the regulation expire, no more aid supplies would reach the north-east of the country.
The now expected resolution to extend UN aid in Syria is said to correspond to a Russian text that was put to the vote in the Security Council last week and failed. The United States, France and Germany had argued that a six-month extension was not sufficient for the relief mission. A first resolution by Ireland and Norway, which provided for an extension of one year, failed because of the Russian veto. The new text should contain an option for another six-month extension. This would then have to be decided again in six months.