Home » In Syria, Russia wants to use humanitarian aid to support Assad – Pierre Haski

In Syria, Russia wants to use humanitarian aid to support Assad – Pierre Haski

by admin

09 July 2021 10:08

Syria has disappeared from our radar, yet millions of men, women and children continue to suffer the consequences of a cruel war, not yet over and without a political solution. According to Amnesty international this is the “worst humanitarian crisis of our times”.

The fate of this population, the main victim of a conflict now over ten years old, depends on the negotiations that will take place in the next few hours at the United Nations. At stake is the possibility that humanitarian aid, including covid-19 vaccines, will reach people in need in Syria unhindered. Aid, at this point, is seriously in danger of not arriving.

In 2014, Security Council Resolution 2165 authorized UN agencies and their partners to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria through four protected corridors; in 2020, the authorization was limited to a single crossing point. This year Russia threatens to oppose the annual renewal, scheduled for July 10. NGOs sound the alarm.

Russia is the protector of the Bashar al Assad regime, and has played a key role in ensuring its survival at the height of the civil war. In May, Damascus organized a simulacrum of elections to restore legitimacy to Assad.

Today Moscow moves on to the next phase, trying to force the handing over of humanitarian aid to the Syrian government, even though Resolution 2165 did not provide for it. In this way Russia tries to impose a fait accompli.

In an article published on July 8 by Le Monde, two doctors who have been involved for years in assisting the Syrian population, the Syrian Ziad Alissa and the Frenchman Raphael Pitti, raised a cry of alarm: “As a health NGO, we believe that the consequences of the closure of the last humanitarian corridor would be terrible ”.

The two doctors recall that the Damascus regime used the hunger weapon during the sieges of several rebel cities, including Aleppo. A part of the population of these cities today has moved to the Idlib enclave, in northeastern Syria, a key area for the arrival and redistribution of aid.

“How could these populations trust the same people who bombed, tortured and starved them until recently? This alternative is not acceptable, it is our red line. The independence and neutrality of humanitarian organizations are not negotiable ”.

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Doctors ask France, a permanent member of the Security Council, to defend the humanitarian corridor. President Emmanuel Macron has already addressed the issue during his recent videoconference meeting with Vladimir Putin.

In any case, to take the words of Amnesty international, it is already shameful that Moscow uses the fate of millions of people to advance its pawns in this disastrous country. The only hope is that Russia will eventually be persuaded to give up its veto right.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)

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