UN Aid Deliveries to Syria from Turkey Extended until January

United Nations Security Council members have agreed to extend for six months a system for bringing aid through Turkey and the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, shown here in July 2022, into war-ravaged Syria OMAR HAJ KADOUR AFP/File
United Nations Security Council members have agreed to extend for six months a system for bringing aid through Turkey and the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, shown here in July 2022, into war-ravaged Syria OMAR HAJ KADOUR AFP/File
TT
20

UN Aid Deliveries to Syria from Turkey Extended until January

United Nations Security Council members have agreed to extend for six months a system for bringing aid through Turkey and the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, shown here in July 2022, into war-ravaged Syria OMAR HAJ KADOUR AFP/File
United Nations Security Council members have agreed to extend for six months a system for bringing aid through Turkey and the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, shown here in July 2022, into war-ravaged Syria OMAR HAJ KADOUR AFP/File

The United Nations Security Council voted on Tuesday to allow UN aid deliveries from Turkey to some 4 million people in northwest Syria to continue until Jan. 10, reaching a deal on its third attempt after the mandate for the operation expired.

The United States, Britain and France abstained from the vote because they wanted to extend the long-running humanitarian aid operation for one year. Russia vetoed that move in a vote on Friday and then failed in its own push for a six-month renewal.

Deputy US Ambassador Richard Mills accused Russia of holding the council hostage. The United States, Britain and France said six months was not long enough for aid groups to plan and operate effectively. The United Nations wanted one year.

"Russia does not care," Mills said. "Russia stood alone in complete isolation and used their veto to punish the Syrian people. It bullied council members and continued its merciless approach toward the most vulnerable."

Russia had said it would veto any text other than its own.

"Russia was trying to get the best deal possible," Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters after the meeting. "The world is bigger than Western countries ... they have to take into consideration interest of the countries first and foremost affected by Security Council decisions."

Council approval for the aid deliveries expired on Sunday. That authorization is needed because Syrian authorities did not agree to the operation, which has been delivering aid including food, medicine and shelter to the opposition-controlled area of Syria since 2014.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that continuation of the aid deliveries "without interruption is essential for an effective international response" and regional stability.

Ukraine tensions

Russia argues that the UN aid operation violates Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It says more aid should be delivered from inside the country, raising opposition fears that food and other aid would fall under government control.

The resolution adopted on Tuesday was put forward by Ireland and Norway. It essentially mirrors the failed Russian text, which only Russia and China supported on Friday.

The Security Council vote on the authorization of the aid operation has long been a contentious issue, but this year also comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and Western powers over Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

"We're dealing with a very difficult geo-political context and the dynamic around the table is very different," Ireland's UN Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason told reporters. "In that context ... you have to see this as a very significant result."

Norway's UN Ambassador Mona Juul noted: "The Russian position this year, as it has been in the previous year, is that they don't want to have this mechanism. That's their starting point. We have managed now to have it renewed."

In 2014, the Security Council authorized humanitarian aid deliveries into opposition-held areas of Syria from Iraq, Jordan and two points in Turkey. But Russia and China, which have veto powers, have whittled that down to just one Turkish border point.

The council on Tuesday committed to further extend the aid operation until July 10, 2023, but another resolution would be required in January to do so. UN chief Antonio Guterres also has to submit a special report on the humanitarian needs in Syria to the Security Council in December.

"I strongly hope that after the six months it will be renewed," Guterres told reporters after the vote.



French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
TT
20

French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)

France's foreign minister said on Sunday that ties with Algeria were back to normal after he held 2 1/2 hours of talks with Algeria's president following months of bickering that have hurt Paris' economic and security interests in its former colony.

Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognizing a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.

A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10% of France's 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.

"We are reactivating as of today all the mechanisms of cooperation in all sectors. We are going back to normal and to repeat the words of President (Abdelmadjid) Tebboune: 'the curtain is lifted'," Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement at the presidential palace in Algiers after 2 1/2 hours of talks.

His visit comes after a call between President Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Tebboune on March 31, during which the two agreed to a broad roadmap to calm tensions.

French officials say Algiers had put obstacles to administrative authorizations and new financing for French firms operating in the country.

Nowhere was that felt more than in wheat imports. Traders say the diplomatic rift led Algerian grains agency OAIC to tacitly exclude French wheat and firms in its import tenders since October. OAIC has said it treats all suppliers fairly, applying technical requirements.

Barrot said he had specifically brought up the difficulties regarding economic exchanges, notably in the agrobusiness, automobile and maritime transport sectors.

"President Tebboune reassured me of his will to give them new impetus," Barrot said.

Beyond business, the relationship has also soured to the point where security cooperation stopped. The detention by Algiers in November of 80-year-old Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal also worsened the relationship.

He has since been sentenced to five years in prison. Barrot said he hoped a gesture of "humanity" could be made by Algiers given his age and health.

With Macron's government under pressure to toughen immigration policies, the spat has fed into domestic politics in both countries.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has called for a 1968 pact between the two countries that makes it easier for Algerians to settle in France to be reviewed, after Algiers refused to take back some of its citizens who were ordered to leave France under the "OQTF" (obligation to leave French territory) deportation regime.

Barrot said Retailleau would soon go to Algiers and that the two sides would resume cooperation on judicial issues.

The relationship between the two countries is scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 war in which the North African country, which had a large settler population and was treated as an integral part of France under colonial rule, won independence.