Russia on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended cross-border aid from Turkey to some four million people in opposition-controlled northwest Syria by one year without Damascus's backing.
Western powers then voted down a competing resolution put forward by Moscow that proposed extending approval by just six months.
The aid is a lifeline for more than 2.4 million people in the northwestern Idlib region of Syria, under the control of extremists and rebels.
The authorization for the aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa, which has been in effect since 2014, is set to expire Sunday.
Thirteen of the 15 Council members voted in favor of the text proposed by Norway and Ireland. China, which often votes the same way as Russia, chose to abstain.
The Norway-Ireland text would have provided for a six-month extension until mid-January 2023, and then an additional six-month extension “unless the Council decides otherwise.”
The extension would also be conditional on a “substantive report” by the United Nations secretary-general, including on the operation’s transparency, progress on channeling aid across the front line, and progress on meeting humanitarian needs.
Diplomatic efforts by Western powers, especially the United States, France, Britain and senior UN officials, failed to convince Russia that it is not the right time to deliver urgent aid from regime-led areas through the battle fronts to the opposition-held areas.
The Council held a minute’s silence for former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated while campaigning, and Angolan ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in Spain.
Ahead of the voting over a UNSCR resolution drafted by Norway and Ireland, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN Mona Juul said Ireland and Norway have engaged carefully and consistently with all Council members throughout this negotiation.
“The result of our efforts is the amended draft resolution which you now have before you. Throughout, we have been guided solely by the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people.”
She explained that the negotiations started with 12 months in the first draft in blue.
A vast majority of the Council members support such a 12-month extension, but the amended text has a 6+6 month extension, she noted, affirming that this is their effort to reach a compromise.
She asked all members to support the draft resolution.
US envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said her country voted in favor of the bill to meet Syrian people’s pressing needs.
She termed it “a dark, dark day” for the Security Council, stressing that it was a life-or-death vote for the Syrian people and Russia chose the latter.
“It is unfathomable that one security council member, Russia, put their own political interests above the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people,” she said.
Following the veto of the resolution, Irish ambassador Byrne Nason expressed her country’s extreme disappointment.
“As penholders on the resolution, we have one message: this is not over,” she stressed, vowing to continue to work with all UNSC members to ensure life-saving aid reaches Syrians in need.
British ambassador Barbara Woodward said Moscow had deployed a “deeply irresponsible veto that will have a tragic impact.”
Russia's deputy ambassador to the world body, Dmitry Polyanskiy, meanwhile accused the west of “stubbornness” and said the resolution “ignored the sovereignty of Damascus.”
