UN aid enters opposition-held Syria for the first time since the earthquake

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An aid convoy consisting of 10 trucks entered the opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria from regime-controlled areas, on Friday, for the first time since the two deadly earthquakes that were centered in southeastern Turkey and devastated the area in February.

An official at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that trucks carrying humanitarian supplies have crossed from Aleppo, which is under regime control, to Idlib.

On February 6, two powerful earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey and Syria, killing more than 50,000 people and causing widespread destruction.

Major highways from Turkey leading to Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in Syria, were also damaged. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that “this assistance is the first of its kind”.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, aid shipments to affected areas became a political battleground, with opponents of Assad and several aid organizations pushing the United Nations to send more aid shipments to northern Syria via Turkey. Meanwhile, the Syrian government and its ally Russia have pressed for aid to be sent through Damascus.

The United Nations is usually only allowed to deliver aid through one border crossing from Turkey, at Bab al-Hawa, at the insistence of Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

After the earthquake, Assad agreed to temporarily open two new crossing points from Turkey at Bab al-Salam and al-Rai. In practice, however, most of the cross-border aid continued to come through Bab al-Hawa. The mandate for cross-border aid deliveries at Bab al-Hawa is due to be renewed next month at the UN Security Council.

Representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham refused to comment on the reasons for changing their position on aid coming from government-controlled areas. But Sam Heller, a fellow at the New York-based think tank Century International, said the group’s decision could be linked to a vote next month at the United Nations.

He said Russia’s envoy to the United Nations had complained about a lack of cross-line shipments, and the permission now may have been intended to encourage Moscow to agree to continued cross-border aid.

“The cross-border authorization will only be renewed with the consent of Russia,” he said.

The Syrian Response Coordination Group, a humanitarian organization operating in northwestern Syria, said in a statement that “humanitarian convoys have become at the mercy of international political tensions,” and called on international organizations to find ways to increase the volume of aid reaching the region.

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