Syria Aid Enters Newly-Opened Border Crossing

Facts

• Following an agreement between the Syrian government and the UN regarding the opening of two additional border crossings from Turkey into opposition-held northwest Syria earlier this week, 11 trucks crossed into the region on Tuesday to deliver aid to the millions of victims of last week's earthquakes.¹
• The two new crossing points at Bab al-Salameh, the crossing used on Tuesday, and al-Raee will be open for an initial period of three months. Before the agreement, the UN was only able to deliver aid via the Bab al-Hawa crossing between Turkey and Idlib.²
• Last week's earthquakes killed tens of thousands of people in southern Turkey and northern Syria. Aid delivery in Syria has been complicated by continued hostilities in the area between pro-government and opposition forces.³
• Originally, the UN Security Council established four approved routes in 2014: two from Turkey, one from Jordan, and one from Iraq. However, by 2021, Russia used its veto authority to limit aid delivery to only one crossing.⁴
• Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy defended Russia's posture toward cross-border aid by saying that the UN was violating Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by sending aid directly from Turkey to opposition-held areas instead of working with the Syrian government in Damascus.⁴
• Over 4M people were in need of aid in opposition-held regions before the earthquakes even occurred, as Syria has been in a state of civil war for the past 12 years.⁵

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Abc news, ³Itn, ⁴Al and ⁵Voa.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Politico. Though the opening of more aid corridors is always a positive development, it should have happened far sooner. Indeed, if it were not for Russian interference, more cross-border aid deliveries could have been made before the earthquakes even struck the area. Ultimately, however, the US itself is not innocent either, as it has systematically failed the Syrian people at every turn.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Al mayadeen english. Though the Western media try to blame the Syrian government and Russia for the lack of aid to opposition-held areas, it is the opposition itself that is stopping aid delivery. The West has waged a long and dirty war against Syria using its jihadist proxies, who are now preventing aid from government-held areas from entering the regions that they control. Damascus has always been willing to help its own people.