Syria extends the opening of two border crossings with Türkiye to help the earthquake

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The Syrian government has agreed to extend the use of two border crossings with Turkey into the opposition-held northwest for another three months, Syrian and UN officials said, which they opened for aid deliveries after the deadly earthquake in February. Saturday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to open the border crossings at Bab al-Salama and al-Rai for three months to allow aid to flow into Idlib province, a week after the February 6 earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria.

The earthquake killed more than 50,000 people, including more than 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. The earthquake also displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Following a UN request and ensuing discussions, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad conveyed to UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths the Syrian government’s decision to allow the UN to continue using the two border crossing points for an additional three months, Airy said. Kaneko, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bassam al-Sabbagh, tweeted that the period was extended for another three months based on Syria’s insistence on promoting “stability and improving living and humanitarian conditions” for all Syrians. He added that the step also aims to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need throughout Syria.

The Idlib governorate in northwestern Syria is home to about 4 million people, many of whom were displaced earlier during the country’s 12-year civil war, which claimed nearly half a million lives.

Since the earthquake, some 2,000 trucks have crossed the border from Turkey, providing assistance such as shelter, food, medical supplies and other services, said David Cardin, the UN’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, during a visit to Idlib earlier this month. .

Cardin added that the earthquake damaged or destroyed the homes of about 855 thousand people.

In 2014, the Security Council authorized four border crossings to deliver aid into northwest Syria – two from Turkey, one from Jordan and one from Iraq. In January 2020, Russia, a close ally of Syria, used its veto threat to reduce the number of crossings from Turkey to the two. The following July, China and Russia vetoed reducing the number to just one crossing.

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