UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council united for the first time on a resolution on Syria’s humanitarian crisis Saturday, demanding President Bashar Assad’s government and the opposition provide immediate access everywhere in the country to deliver aid to millions of people in desperate need.
The fate of the Western and Arab-backed resolution rested with Russia, Syria’s closest ally, and China, another supporter.
They decided to join the rest of the 15-member council in sending a strong message – especially to the Assad government – food, medicine and other essentials must not be blocked to civilians caught in the three-year conflict.
The resolution does not threaten sanctions – Russia insisted this reference be dropped from the original Western and Arab-backed text – but it does express the council’s intention to take “further steps” if the resolution isn’t implemented.
All Security Council resolutions are legally binding – but what remains to be seen is whether this resolution has an impact on the ground, especially since it doesn’t have real “teeth.”
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos expressed hope in a statement it “will facilitate the delivery of aid to people in desperate need in Syria.”
The resolution demands all parties, especially the Syrian government, “promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered access ... across conflict lines and across borders” for humanitarian aid, and it calls on both sides “to immediately lift the sieges of populated areas.” It also demands all parties “cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival,” and it demands a halt to all attacks against civilians, including indiscriminate shelling and aerial attacks using barrel bombs in populated areas.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after the vote that the resolution “should not have been necessary” because “humanitarian assistance is not something to be negotiated – it is something to be allowed by virtue of international law.
“Half the country’s people need urgent assistance,” he said. “Host countries need support in caring for more than 2.5 million refugees.”
The U.N. chief said it is “profoundly shocking ... that both sides are besieging civilians as a tactic of war.”
Russia and China had vetoed three previous resolutions backed by Western nations that would have pressured Assad to end the conflict, which according to activists has killed more than 136,000 people.
Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told the council since the beginning of the crisis, “the Syrian government was keen to improve the humanitarian situation of the people,” and “it has continued to work day and night in order to perform all the humanitarian needs of its citizens.”
The Security Council did come together in October to approve a weaker presidential statement on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria.
But U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said last week the presidential statement has not delivered the results that are critically needed, calling progress on the humanitarian front in the last four months “limited, uneven and painfully slow.” She backed a council resolution if it had “levers” leading to change on the ground.
In her statement Saturday, Amos said, “More than anything the conflict needs to end, so that people can begin to rebuild their lives. Syria is in danger of losing a generation of its children. Children are the future. We must protect them.”
