Russia vetoes UNSC Western draft resolution on extending cross-border aid mechanism in Syria

Russia has vetoed a Western draft resolution of the United Nations Security Council on the extension of the Mechanism for Cross-Border Aid Delivery (CBM) from Turkey into Syria for one more year – till July 2023.

China abstained, other Security Council members supported the Ireland-and Norway-initiated draft resolution.

During the same session, Russia submitted its own draft resolution on extending the work in the Mechanism for Cross-Border Aid Delivery into Syria for 6 months based on resolution No. 2585 issued last July, and on increasing early recovery projects in the country but the draft was vetoed by the western countries, United States, France and the United Kingdom under the pretext that it would not allow enough time to plan operations.

Polyansky: Cross-border aid shutdown will be an alternative to Russian project

Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said during the session that the United States is misleading the world about Russia’s stance on the mechanism of cross-border aid in Syria.

“My US counterpart’s speech seems especially sly, twisted and cynical. It may give the impression that the Russia-drafted [resolution extending the mechanism for six months] does not provide for the extension of the cross-border mechanism at all,” Polyansky stressed after the vote on the Russian resolution.

“You always say that you want the situation to improve, but in fact, it has shown that all of this was cunning, and it was false. Today, that’s what has been demonstrated about the situation with the cross-border mechanism,” Polyansky said.

“Our draft has everything that the US ambassador listed in her speech. We see in your words a blatant manifestation of political cynicism and an attempt to mislead the world’s public opinion,” he added.

In Polyansky’s opinion, the alternative to the Russian project will be “the complete and irreversible termination of the cross-border mechanism.”

The United Nations Security Council has been extending the Mechanism for Cross-Border Aid Delivery into Syria (CBM) since 2014.

Hamda Mustafa