Moscow push to reduce UN cross-border aid to Syria fails

A Russian bid to get the United Nations to reduce cross-border humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria was voted down by the Security Council Wednesday, an official said.

Authorisation for the aid, which comes through two crossing points on the Turkish border — at Bab al-Salam, which leads to the Aleppo region, and Bab al-Hawa, which serves the Idlib region — expires Friday.

Under its resolution, Moscow had wanted to abolish the first crossing point and put a time limit of six months on the second.

Russia needed nine votes and no veto from a permanent member of the Council to get its resolution passed — but received only four votes, announced the President of the Security Council, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen.

Seven countries voted against it and four abstained. "The draft resolution has not been adopted, having failed to obtain the required number of votes," Heusgen said.

Diplomats said that Russia, along with China, Vietnam and South Africa, had voted for the resolution.

Against were the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Estonia and the Dominican Republic.

Tunisia, Niger, Indonesia and Saint Vincent abstained, the diplomats said.

The vote came after Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a draft resolution by Germany and Belgium providing for a one-year extension of the cross-border authorization and the maintenance of both crossing points.

Sources have said the two European countries could agree to reduce the extension of the arrangement to six months, hoping that Russia will be satisfied with it.

Authorization for cross-border humanitarian aid has existed since 2014, with periodic extensions.

Tuesday's vote was the 15th time that Russia has used its veto since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, and the ninth for China.

They argue that the UN authorization violates Syria's sovereignty, and that aid can increasingly be channeled through Syrian authorities.