Turkey is pushing the United Nations and others for an extension of aid deliveries into rebel-held northwest Syria as global interest and funding priorities shift towards suffering in other conflicts, two Turkish sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.
Turkey, which has backed rebels looking to oust President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s 12-year-old civil war and has no ties with Damascus diplomatically, has been a center for aid delivery into northwest Syria since 2014, mainly through its Bab al-Hawa (Cilvegözü) crossing, with UN Security Council authorization.
That permission was extended unilaterally by the Assad government until Jan. 13 after the 15-member Security Council failed to reach an agreement last year.
After two major earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria in February 2023, Syria granted another permission for aid deliveries from the Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee crossings, but that will also expire on Feb. 13.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was crucial to extend the authorizations, namely for Bab al-Hawa, to allow planning for long-term humanitarian and development projects in the region. One source said that adding deadlines caused “constant pressure and unpredictability.”
“The UN is also looking, with the [Syrian] regime, at the possibility of extending this indefinitely this time, without a three or six-month set limit,” the source said.
“We are closely following negotiations the UN is holding on use of these border crossings, we are in constant contact,” the person said, adding the Security Council might adopt a binding resolution if an extension is not agreed with Damascus.
The Syrian government did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the issue. However, two aid sources told Reuters they had heard “reassuring” news about a unilateral renewal from Damascus for the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said talks were continuing with Damascus on the cross-border aid as it remained a “lifeline” to some 2.5 million people in the northwest, the last major Syrian rebel bastion as the war has abated.
She said 5,000 trucks of aid had crossed into the region in 2023, with 4,000 entering via Bab al-Hawa.