Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has agreed to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid through two more border crossings from Turkey for an initial period of three months without any preconditions, the UN said in a statement on Monday.
In addition to the Bab Al Hawa border crossing, the crossing points Bab Al Salam and Al Ra’ee from Turkey to north-west Syria will reopen to ensure the “timely delivery of humanitarian aid”.
After briefing the Security Council behind closed doors, Turkey's ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu told The National that his country is “ready to open” the borders.
Syria’s UN ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, confirmed the agreement and expressed his country’s commitment to delivering humanitarian aid for the next three months to Syrians, “wherever they are on the Syrian soil.”
He told reporters that a Security Council resolution was not needed because it’s a “sovereign decision,” an agreement between Syria and the UN.
For Damascus, it may be a “relief to let foreign donors and the UN carry the burden of aiding Idlib,” Richard Gowan UN director at the International Crisis Group told The National.
"Syria will also be happy to have sorted this out bilaterally with the UN, meaning that the Security Council does not have any formal power over the additional crossings, unlike Bab Al Hawa," he added.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the decision, saying “opening these crossing points — along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs — will allow more aid to go in, faster”.
“As the toll of the February 6 earthquake continues to mount, delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency,” said Mr Guterres.
The UN has been under mounting pressure to find new ways to override political pressure and establish more border crossings from Turkey into Syria, as humanitarian concerns mount.
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The brother of a survivor Gokhan Ugurlu, 35, who was pulled out of the rubble in Hatay, Turkey, reacts as a rescuer looks on. Reuters -
A woman walks past flattened buildings in a street in Hatay province, Turkey. Reuters -
A member of the army stands amid rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters -
A man reacts while sitting outside a tent of a temporary accommodation centre set up on a football pitch in Gaziantep, Turkey. Reuters -
Earthquake survivors walk on a street in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters -
A White Helmets volunteer holds a rescued cat in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria. Reuters -
A Syrian boy, who lost his family in the deadly earthquake, stands amid the rubble of his family home in Jindayris. AFP -
Rescuers sit by a bonfire in Hatay, Turkey. AFP -
A Turkish soldier walks among destroyed buildings in Hatay. AFP -
Relatives of Palestinian doctor Yusuf Darabeh, who died when the earthquake hit Turkey, comfort each other. AP Photo -
People stand by a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. AP Photo -
A child, injured in the earthquake, is treated at hospital in Bab Al Hawah, Syria. AP Photo -
Vehicles containing aid from Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) on the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Syria border. Reuters -
Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after five days under the rubble in Antakya, Turkey. AP -
Romanian firefighters load a Turkey-bound train with emergency aid near Bucharest. AP -
Collapsed buildings in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters -
Abdulkerim Nano, 67, is rescued after five days under the rubble in in Kahramanmaras, Turkey -
A Turkish rescue worker checks a collapsed building in Adiyaman. AP -
Rescuers in Adiyaman, Turkey. AP -
A resident in front of his collapsed building in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP -
Syrian refugees shelter in a public market in the Islahiye district of Gaziantep, Turkey. AP -
A family wait for the bodies of their relatives to be recovered in Antakya, Turkey. AP -
A woman plays with a sniffer dog in Antakya, Turkey. AP -
Collapsed buildings in Antakya, Turkey. AP -
A Syrian woman takes care of her nephew Hasan Goayid, eight, in Islahiye district, Gaziantep. AP -
A Syrian child in a tent in the Islahiye district. AP -
Collapsed buildings in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP -
Emirati rescuers sift through the rubble of a collapsed building in the regime-controlled town of Jableh, northwest of the Syrian capital. AFP -
Volunteers at the Emirates Red Crescent 'Bridges of Goodness' campaign at the South Hall, Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City. Leslie Pableo for The National -
Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, in Maras, Turkey. Reuters -
Rescuers give water to a dog after a rescue operation in Hatay, southern Turkey. AP -
A deadly earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6. EPA -
Fissures from the earthquake have crumpled the highway near Islahiyeh in Southern Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National -
A Kurdish charity's aid convoy enters Syria through the Bab Al Salama crossing with Turkey, in the northern province of Aleppo. AFP -
A rescuer with a sniffer dog searches in a destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey. AFP -
A makeshift camp erected in a stadium in the city of Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. EPA -
A woman mourns Turkish Cypriot victims of the earthquake, during a funeral procession in the Turkish occupied area in north-east coastal city of Famagusta, Cyprus. AP -
Rescuers carry survivor Rabia Ofkeli, 27, from the rubble in Hatay, southern Turkey. Reuters -
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad visits Aleppo university hospital. Reuters -
Members of the Swiss rescue team with a four-month-old girl, Abir, who was pulled out from the rubble in Antakya. AFP -
Survivors at a hospital in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters -
Members of the White Helmets during the fifth day of rescue operations in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters -
Indonesian Muslims perform a prayer for the victims at Istiqlal grand mosque in Jakarta. EPA -
Emergency personnel conduct a rescue operation to save Melda, 16, from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey. AFP -
The earthquake caused a railbed overpass to collapse in Nurdagi, Turkey. AFP -
A framed picture on the cracked wall of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, south-eastern Turkey. EPA -
A coastal area of Iskenderun, Turkey, was flooded after the quake. Reuters -
A sheet of paper lies among the rubble in Elbistan. AP -
Relief supplies destined for earthquake survivors in Turkey, at a warehouse in Schoenefeld, near Berlin, Germany. AP -
Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, three days after the earthquake struck. AFP -
Rescuers with a child pulled out from under the rubble. Reuters -
Rescuers rest on top of rubble as an aircraft drops water over a fire at the port in the quake-stricken town of Iskenderun. Reuters -
A rescue worker in Kahramanmaras, three days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-east Turkey. AFP -
People try to pull out a dog trapped beneath the rubble in Iskenderun, Turkey. Reuters -
Lorries carrying humanitarian aid wait at Bab Al Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border. Reuters -
Syrians warm up by a fire outside a makeshift tent near the rebel-held town of Jindayris in Syria. AFP -
A dam on the Orontes river in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province collapsed after the quake, flooding the neighbourhood. AFP -
The sails of the Sydney Opera House lit with a black ribbon in remembrance and mourning of the earthquake victims. Getty -
Smoke billows amid an expanse of collapsed and damaged buildings in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters -
Dogs of the German International Search and Rescue team rest between operations in Kirikhan, Turkey. Reuters -
White Helmets volunteers rescue a child trapped beneath the rubble in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters -
People gather to collect food and humanitarian aid in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, south-east Turkey. EPA -
The statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, is surrounded by damaged buildings in Adiyaman province. AP -
A plane carrying humanitarian air sent for earthquake survivors lands in Damascus. Mahmoud Rida / The National -
Motorway fractured by earthquake causes car crash near Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National -
A tent camp has been set up at a stadium in south-eastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras to shelter families whose homes were destroyed in the quake. AFP -
A displaced Syrian woman rests under a tree in a field on the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Jindayris. AFP
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey on February 5 has so far killed more than 35,000 people.
According to the White Helmets, the death toll in opposition-held north-west Syria has reached 2,274.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who this weekend visited Turkey and Syria, said on Sunday on Twitter: “We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria.
“They rightly feel abandoned.”
He added that it was the international community's obligation “to correct this failure as fast as we can”.
The Security Council authorised a cross-border aid mechanism in July 2014 three years after the Syrian civil war began. It approved four crossings: two from Turkey, one from Jordan and one from Iraq.
Why has it taken so long to get aid to north-west Syria? — video
The resolution meant the UN and its partners could deliver humanitarian aid across Syria’s border without permission from Damascus, whose protracted conflict with opposition forces in the north-west has mostly cut the area off from international aid.
Until now, the Security Council has failed to keep all but one border crossing open to the flow of aid due to the Assad regime's ally Russia vetoing most efforts.
But last week, Syrian opposition groups announced that, for the first time in years, they had secured Turkey's approval to use corridors at Bab Al Salam as well as Al Ra’ee to funnel aid into the territory.
In the aftermath of the closed Security Council's meeting on Monday to discuss ways to boost humanitarian assistance to Syria, France’s UN ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said the two additional crossing points should work in a "transparent and sustainable manner because this is an agreement for three months", adding if it doesn't work then "I think the Security Council should get back to work" and look into a resolution that includes "Chapter 7 measures".
Chapter 7 of the UN Charter allows the council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression”, to make recommendations or to resort to non-military or military action to “maintain or restore international peace and security”.
Switzerland and Brazil, the two countries that oversee the UN's Syria file, urged all parties to "facilitate passage of relief efforts and assistance to reach all those in need."
Regarding Monday's announcement on the opening of the crossing points from Turkey to north-west Syria, Charles Lister, the director of the Syria programme at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told The National, the UN has dramatically underplayed its hand and given the Syrian regime “the chance to look more powerful than it is.”
“The UN and international community writ-large already had a legal ability to utilize the Bab Al Salam and Al Ra’ee crossings — international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions give all the necessary cover to do so — particularly in emergency circumstances,” said Mr Lister.
Humanitarian aid collected in Dubai to be sent to earthquake victims — in pictures
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Volunteers fill boxes at Homeward Bound, Al Quoz, Dubai, at in a collection point run by the Turkish consulate. All photos: Chris Whiteoak / The National -
The collection drive is being sponsored by Turkish Airlines -
Members of the public delivered goods to the warehouse all day on Wednesday -
Officials urged donors to bring warm clothing as temperatures plunge in southern Turkey -
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people turned out to help over the course of the day -
Of particular concern to aid workers is the humanitarian crisis that will result from the earthquake -
Volunteers packing aid boxes in Al Quoz, Dubai, for survivors of the earthquake
