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UN: Ability to Get Lifesaving Aid to 4 Million Syrians at Risk

Margaret Besheer

   UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. humanitarian chief is urging the Security
   Council to authorize a one-year extension of cross-border aid
   operations into Syria, warning there is no backup plan for
   reachingmillions of vulnerable civilians without it.
   "Cross-border operations provide assistance that cannot otherwise reach
   those in need," Mark Lowcock toldtheSecurity Council president, U.S.
   Ambassador Kelly Craft, in the letter dated December17 and seen by VOA.
   "The United Nations does not have an alternative means of reaching 2.7
   million people in need in northwest Syria."

   Lowcock said another 1.3 million people in the northeast receive
   lifesaving aid through a border crossing with Iraq. In all, about 4
   million of the 11.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance
   in war-torn Syria are reached through four crossing points from Turkey,
   Iraq and Jordan.
   "Without the cross-border operation, we would see an immediate end of
   aid supporting millions of civilians," he wrote.
   Russia's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that the U.N.'s continued call
   for using the four border crossings, and its support for an additional
   one that Turkey has proposed, didnot reflect "the realities."

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