UN investigators slam sluggish help for Syria quake victims
Al JazeeraAPR 2023
Despite providing a crucial lifeline to over 4M people, cross-border aid has consistently faced attempts from Russia to undermine the UN's mechanism. Moscow and the al-Assad regime continue to play with the lives of Syrians in an attempt to gain leverage. Both the Russian and the Syrian governments must stop politicizing international efforts to give aid to the region and cease manipulating a humanitarian crisis for their own benefit.
Russia's criticism of the UN's controversial cross-border aid mechanism highlights the complexity of the Syrian crisis and merely calls for greater transparency and fairness in a program that benefits the West's political goals while ignoring the needs of over 14M Syrians who live in government-controlled territory. Russia's demands merely insist that UN efforts respect Syria's sovereignty, comply with international norms, and attempt to provide aid to all Syrians.
Though the US and other Western countries blame Russia for the lack of aid delivery to northwest Syria, the reality is that Russia's approval is not actually needed to deliver aid independently. Russia and the Syrian regime are the main causes of Syrians' suffering, but that doesn't mean that the West is without blame as well. Turkey controls the border between it and the rebel-held areas of northwest Syria, meaning that humanitarian aid could be transferred to the millions in need without Russia's approval.