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UN Security Council Authorizes Scaled-Back Cross-Border Aid into Syria

Margaret Besheer

   UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to allow
   scaled-back cross-border humanitarian aid operations to continue into
   Syria, adopting a resolution just hours before the operations were due
   to expire.

   Russia won its push to cut back the number of crossing points from four
   to two, and to guarantee they continue only for an additional six
   months, instead of the one year several other council members sought."

   We find ourselves in this situation because the Russian Federation has
   decided to use deprivation as a weapon against the Syrian people," U.S.
   Ambassador Kelly Craft said. "This is a crisis of Russia's making; it
   is theirs to own."

   The U.N. and its partners have been delivering aid via several border
   points since 2014, reaching about 4 million needy Syrians. But the
   government of Bashar al-Assad no longer wants the deliveries to
   continue, as they try to stamp out the last rebel strongholds.

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