Bab al-Salama crossing between Syria and Turkey (archive)
Saturday, May 13, 2023 / 00:16
A United Nations spokesman announced on Friday that the international organization is asking the Syrian government to extend its approval to deliver post-earthquake aid to opposition-held areas through two additional crossings, but two informed sources ruled out the extension.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed to open the Bab al-Salam and al-Rai crossings for 3 months, starting on February 13, a week after the earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Armed groups control parts of northwest Syria in the 12-year-old civil war.
A day before the aid transit permit expired, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said he had requested “an extension of the special measures taken after the February 6 earthquake to continue facilitating the humanitarian response to all affected areas.”
Laerke said the talks were “constructive”.
--However, 4 informed sources said that there are “indications that there will be no extension.”
A humanitarian aid source in New York familiar with the U.N. talks said an extension appeared unlikely.
The source said that aid providers initially thought that Assad would renew the deadline, but Syria’s return to the Arab League removed a source of pressure.
Aid groups fear that some 4 million people will be deprived of vital aid.
“It is important that humanitarian aid continues to reach northwest Syria,” said Tanya Evans, the International Rescue Committee’s Syria director.
