Sabbagh: Russia’s decision to vote against western draft resolution on the cross border mechanism for humanitarian aid delivery to Syria is balanced

On July 20th, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bassam Sabbagh affirmed that Russia has taken a balanced and wise decision to vote against a Western draft resolution regarding the mechanism for delivering international humanitarian aid to Syria across borders.

The western draft resolution did not meet the rightful demands of Syria regarding achieving a better response to the real needs of the Syrian people.

Sabbagh said that the Syrian government has taken a sovereign decision to grant the United Nations the permission to use the Bab Al -Hawa crossing for delivering humanitarian aid.

Sabbagh said in a statement during the General Assembly session on the 60th item, entitled “Using the Veto”, that the delegation of the Russian Federation, on 11/7-2023, made a balanced and wise decision to vote against a western draft resolution on extending the resolution regarding the mechanism for delivering international humanitarian aid to Syria across borders, because it did not meet Syria’s rightful demands regarding achieving a better response to the true needs of the Syrian people, based on an objective evaluation of the implementation of the items of Resolution 2672, which demonstrated the weakness in implementation and in the response to the humanitarian needs of the Syrians.

Sabbagh said: “Syria expresses its complete agreement with the position of the Russian Federation in rejection of the draft resolution, which expresses Russia’s keenness to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people, and which is consistent with Russia’s full commitment to the principle of respecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Syria which was confirmed by all the decisions of the Security Council related to the Syrian issue.”

Sabbagh pointed out that when the Security Council established the mechanism for delivering aid across the border under its decision No. 2165 of 2014, this was a temporary measure imposed by exceptional circumstances that no longer exist.

He said: “Over the past years, Syria has expressed its position on the grave faults in this mechanism especially in terms of its violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the lack of guarantee that the aid will not reach to the terrorist organizations that control northwestern Syria , due to the lack of effective monitoring mechanism, lack of transparency and the massive loss resulted from high operational expenses. All these defects have prevented the improvement of the humanitarian situation in that region. ”

Sabbagh added: “The recent reports of the Secretary -General showed an increase in humanitarian needs and more limited access to basic services, including the decline in health care levels and a severe water crisis, followed by the cholera epidemic and a severe electricity shortage not to mention the lack of funding, as the funding for the humanitarian response plan for this year until today is 12 percent of the required financing, which will force the World Food Program to reduce its aid to the Syrians by 40 percent, added to this is the negative impact of the unilateral sanctions on humanitarian work.”

Sabbagh indicated that the delegation of the Russian Federation presented a draft resolution aimed at making real improvements to Resolution 2672, ensuring the implementation of fundamental priciples in it and contributing to improving the humanitarian situation od the Syrians in a sincere attempt to enable the council to fulfill its responsibility in a real and effective way, but the project was not adopted as a result of a vote by the three western permsnent member states against it.

Sabbagh stressed that the government of the Syrian Arab Republic took a sovereign decision to grant the United Nations and its specialized agencies to use the Bab Al-Hawa crossing to deliver humanitarian aid for a period in light of the intransigence showed by some member states of the Security Council.

He pointed out that the Syrian government had previously taken a decision to open two additional crossings for a period of three months in the wake of the catastrophe of the devastating earthquake that struck the country on the sixth of last February, in order to facilitate the arrival of the necessary humanitarian aid to that area, and extended their work for another three months until August 13.

Sabbagh said: “Syria affirmed its full openness to engaging bilaterally with the United Nations and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) specifically regarding the mechanism of work under the authorization granted by the Syrian government and the aspects of cooperation and coordination between them, in line with the United Nations guidelines on humanitarian aid emphasized by General Assembly Resolution 46/182 and the partnership that must be strengthened for the success of the humanitarian response, foremost of which is respect for the sovereignty of the concerned country, by obtaining its approval.”

Sabbagh said: “It is shameful that some Western countries ignore these positive steps taken by the Syrian government and insist on continuing the policy of collective punishment of the Syrians and the use of financial blackmailing as a means of pressure at the expense of the lives of the Syrians.”

He added: “The continuation of Western countries’ politicization of humanitarian work in Syria, trading in the suffering of the Syrians, obstructing any sincere effort to alleviate that suffering, and persisting in imposing unilateral coercive and inhumane measures against them, in addition to using a cross-border mechanism as a tool of political pressure and blackmail against my country, and the threat to cut funding is what brought the Security Council to the state of division that we have witnessed.”

The Syrian diplomat clarified that the United States’ record of unjustly using the veto over the past decades against the peoples of our region, especially regarding decisions pertaining to the Palestinian cause, and its obstruction of the peaceful solution of many international crises, does not qualify it to lecture here on the reasons and motives for using the veto in the Security Council.

Sabbagh indicated that the United States, instead of issuing false accusations against others, should stop uttering humanitarian slogans and shedding crocodile tears on the Syrians, should end its violations of Syrian sovereignty and its theft of national wealth and resources, and should lift the illegal coercive measures imposed on the Syrian people, all of which constitute a clear and blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations.

O. al-Mohammad / Inas Abdulkareem