Agreement to Reopen Crossing to Syria’s Northwest Will Safeguard Independent UN Operations, UN Says 

Trucks drive through the border crossing at Bab al-Salameh in Aleppo countryside, Syria August 9, 2023. (Reuters)
Trucks drive through the border crossing at Bab al-Salameh in Aleppo countryside, Syria August 9, 2023. (Reuters)
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Agreement to Reopen Crossing to Syria’s Northwest Will Safeguard Independent UN Operations, UN Says 

Trucks drive through the border crossing at Bab al-Salameh in Aleppo countryside, Syria August 9, 2023. (Reuters)
Trucks drive through the border crossing at Bab al-Salameh in Aleppo countryside, Syria August 9, 2023. (Reuters)

The agreement the United Nations reached with Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Türkiye to its opposition-held northwest for six months “safeguards” the independence of UN operations and allows it to provide aid to all parties, the UN said Wednesday.

The agreement, which was announced Tuesday night, will reopen the Bab al-Hawa crossing, which had been used for 85% of deliveries to the northwest Idlib region, home to about 4.1 million people.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN is ready to resume operations through Bab al-Hawa as soon as possible but it will take some time to get trucks moving and “I don’t expect anything to happen in the next few days.”

The UN-Syria “understanding” on Bab al-Hawa, announced by Haq Tuesday evening, followed his announcement earlier in the day that Syria agreed to keep two other crossings to the northwest, Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai, open for three months until Nov. 13.

Haq said Wednesday that Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the understanding on Bab al-Hawa and Syria's extension of authorization to use Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai for three months, and its consent to cross conflict lines at Sarmada and Saraqib, both in the Idlib region, to deliver aid for the next six months.

Bab al-Hawa was closed to UN humanitarian operations after the Security Council failed to adopt either of two rival resolutions on July 11 to authorize further deliveries through the crossing.

Many people in Idlib have been forced from their homes during Syria's 12-year war, which has killed nearly a half million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Hundreds of thousands of people in Idlib live in tent settlements and had relied on aid that came through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.

Soon after the Security Council's failure to act, the Syrian government said it would open Bab al-Hawa to the United Nations, but it set unacceptable conditions.

Syria had insisted aid deliveries must be done “in full cooperation and coordination with the government,” that the UN would not communicate with “terrorist organizations” and their affiliates, and that the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent would run aid operations.

The UN responded that the prohibition on communicating with groups considered “terrorist” by the Syrian government would prevent the UN and partner organizations from engaging with all parties during humanitarian operations. It said in a letter that stipulating aid deliveries must be overseen by the Red Cross or Red Crescent was “neither consistent with the independence of the United Nations nor practical,” since those organizations “are not present in northwest Syria.”

Haq said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths had been engaging with the Syrian government and other parties “to reconcile differences” and ensure the UN’s independence and humanitarian engagement with all parties.

Syrian President Bashar Assad opened the two additional crossing points from Türkiye at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai to increase the flow of assistance to victims of the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged northwestern Syria and southern Türkiye on Feb. 6.

Assad extended their operation for three months in May until Aug. 13, and Haq said Tuesday the government informed Griffiths that it would allow the UN to continue using the two crossings until Nov. 13.



Nearly 30% of Syrians Want to Go Home, up from Almost Zero, UN Refugee Chief Says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Nearly 30% of Syrians Want to Go Home, up from Almost Zero, UN Refugee Chief Says

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's de factor leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) receiving United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (L) in Damascus on January 25, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

Almost 30% of the millions of Syrian refugees living in Middle Eastern countries want to return home in the next year, following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, up from almost none last year, the head of the UN's refugee agency said.

The shift is based on an assessment done by the UN in January, weeks after Assad was ousted by opposition factions, bringing an abrupt end to a 13-year civil war that had created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times.

"We have seen the needle move, finally, after years of decline," Filippo Grandi told a small group of reporters in Damascus, after holding meetings with the Syria's new ruling administration.

The number of Syrians wishing to return "had reached almost zero. It's now nearly 30% in the space of a few weeks. There is a message there, which I think is very important, must be listened to and must be acted upon," he said.

Around 200,000 Syrian refugees have already returned since Assad fell, he said, in addition to around 300,000 who fled back to Syria from Lebanon during the Hezbollah-Israel war in September and October, most of whom are thought to have stayed.

Returning the roughly 6 million Syrians who fled abroad and the millions who became internally displaced has been a main aim of Syria's new administration.

But the civil war has left large parts of many major cities in ruins, services decrepit and the vast majority of the population living in poverty. Syria remains under a harsh Western sanctions regime that effectively cuts off its formal economy from the rest of the world.

To aid Syrians returning, many of whom often sell all their belongings to pay for the trip, UN agencies are providing some cash aid for transportation and will help with food and to reconstruct at least parts of broken homes, Grandi said.

More aid is needed from donors, Grandi said, and sanctions should be reconsidered. He did not comment directly on an announcement on Friday by the new US administration of a broad suspension of foreign aid programs.

"If sanctions are lifted, this will improve the conditions in the places where people return," he said.

The US earlier this month provided a six-month sanctions exemption for some sectors, including energy, but Syria's new leaders say much more relief is needed.

Grandi said refugees were responding to a political process that the new administration's leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has committed to, aimed at producing a governing authority by March 1 that better represents Syria's diversity.

"Refugees are listening to what he's saying, to what his people are saying, and that's why I think many people decided to go back," Grandi said. "But many more will come if these things continue to be positive."