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UN Appeals for Scaling Up of Syrian Cross-Border Aid

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - The U.N. humanitarian chief appealed to the Security Council
   on Monday to extend authorization for aid to continue entering Syria
   through Turkey and to reinstate a closed border crossing from Iraq,
   crucial to delivering medical supplies as the country faces COVID-19.

   "The cross-border authorization provides a lifeline for millions of
   civilians in northwest Syria," Mark Lowcock told a virtual meeting of
   the council. "We cannot reach them without it."

   The council resolution authorizing aid convoys from Turkey into
   northwest Syria will expire July 10. In January, the council bowed to
   pressure from Russia and closed two of four existing crossing points,
   rather than risk losing the entire cross-border aid operation to a
   Russian veto. One crossing was between Iraq and northeast Syria and
   another between Syria and Jordan that had not been in recent use.

   The Iraqcrossing, known as al-Yarubiyah, was a lifeline providing
   critical medical supplies, including vaccines, therapeutics for chronic
   illnesses and trauma kits, to 1.4 million people in northeastern Syria.

   The crossing was closed just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic started
   to hit the region.

   Today Syria has registered 256 confirmed cases of the virus and nine
   deaths, including six cases and one fatality in the northeast. But the
   government has administered only 8,000 diagnostic tests in a country of
   about 15 million people.

   "Syria's health system is not prepared for a large-scale outbreak,"
   Lowcock said.

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