The United Nations agreement on Syria at the eleventh hour

Bab al-Hawa provides support to Syria via Turkey, and intense diplomatic negotiations take place each year when the decision governing the opening of the border expires.

Again this year, with the difference that this time the decision was only extended by six months. A vote in the House is expected later on Monday, New York time.

It’s Russia who sat on the sidelines and wanted to veto the resolution, while the Western Security Council wanted to extend it.

Russia has now announced, according to diplomatic sources, that it may consider agreeing to a six-month extension, something other member states eventually had to agree to. This, in turn, means that the decision should be up for negotiation again in January 2023.

The importance of crossing the border Bab al-Hawa, which mainly gives the United Nations but also many other aid organizations the opportunity to bring food from Turkey to the worst affected areas of Syria, is best explained in numbers.

Every month, relief operations reach 2.4 million people in northwest Syria, according to the United Nations. In May, more than 1,000 trucks loaded with medicine and food crossed the border. More than 4.1 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in northwest Syria, some 700,000 more than last year. Most of them are women and children.