The Syrian president has agreed to open two new cross-border crossing points between Turkey and northwestern Syria for three months to deliver humanitarian aid to earthquake victims, the UN secretary general announced on Monday.
“I welcome Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s decision today to open the two crossings of Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra’ee between Turkey and northwestern Syria for an initial period of three months,” Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
The Syrian president announced the decision to UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths whom he met earlier in the day in Damascus, an announcement that Martin Griffiths conveyed to the Security Council which met on Monday afternoon to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria, a UN source told AFP.
Only one crossing point allowed so far
Before the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for more than 4 million people living in the rebel areas of northwestern Syria was transported from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing point, the only one authorized by the Security Council.
This cross-border mechanism created in 2014 by a UN Security Council resolution is contested by Damascus but also by Moscow, a permanent member which has the right of veto and which has lobbied in recent years to reduce the number of crossings from four to one. While calls to open new crossing points have multiplied in recent days, several members of the Security Council, United States, France, United Kingdom, have called for a new resolution to this effect.
But the Damascus agreement makes this resolution superfluous. The opening of the two new crossing points “will allow more help to enter, faster,” said Antonio Guterres.
Read also: Earthquake in Turkey: “I had never seen such damage”
The toll of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake continues to grow and could even “double” according to the UN: it stands at 35,224 dead on Monday – 31,643 dead in southern Turkey, according to the ‘Afad, Turkish public disaster management body, while authorities have counted 3,581 dead in Syria. “72,663 people could lose their lives while 193,399 people could be injured,” according to a report by the employers’ association Turkonfed published by Turkish media on Monday.