UN gets authorisation to deliver aid to quake-hit northern Syria

The United Nations has said it secured a green light to keep sending aid into earthquake-hit Syrian opposition-controlled zones, with two border crossings reopened and talks underway on a third blocked since last month.

The Syrian regime agreed to a second three-month extension of two border crossings that were opened to UN humanitarian workers after the February earthquake and had been due to close on August 13.

"We greatly welcome the extension of permission by the government of Syria to utilise the Bab al Salam and Al Rai border crossings until November 13," said Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The February 6 quakes in Türkiye and Syria killed more than 55,000 people. After criticism of slow aid, Damascus agreed to the two border crossings to let in supplies including tents, blankets and anti-cholera kits.

Syria — already devastated by more than a decade of civil war that has left half a million people dead — needs some $15 billion to recover from the earthquake, according to a UN assessment released in May.

The UN Security Council voted in 2014 to authorise four border crossings to let aid into opposition-held areas of the north and northwest, where more than four million people live.

Under pressure from Russia, the main international ally of Syria's Bashar al Assad, only one crossing — Bab al Hawa — remained open by 2020 as Damascus sought to re-exert its authority.

That crossing shut to aid in July after Russia vetoed a nine-month extension and failed to muster votes to adopt a measure that would last just six months.

Syrian regime said it would still temporarily allow use of the crossing, but the United Nations denounced the conditions as unacceptable.

The conditions included that the United Nations cooperate fully with Damascus and not communicate with "terrorist organisations."

But a UN spokesman said on Tuesday that the United Nations was in communication with Damascus about a way forward on Bab al Hawa.

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Source: TRT