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US urges 'unhindered' cross-border aid access to Syria

Anadolu Agency MIDDLE EAST
Published March 29,2021
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US State Secretary Antony Blinken on Monday called for an "unhindered" cross-border access to get humanitarian aid into Syria, saying it's "more important than ever".

Chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Blinked said that it is "clear" that the needs of Syrians are not going to be met by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

"We must ensure Syrians get the aid they need," he said, adding: "The most efficient method is through border crossings [...] There is no good reason [that] crossings remain closed today."

The US secretary demanded reauthorization of both closed borders al-Yaroubiya and Bab al-Salam while keeping Bab al-Hawa, the only UN-authorized humanitarian border crossing in Syria, open.

Turning to the last weeks' regime attack on the al-Atareb hospital, which killed six patients and injured five staffers, Blinken said: "The coordinates had been shared with the UN, meaning the regime knew exactly where it was."

An additional Russian airstrike on the al-Bab border crossing with Turkey killed one civilian and injured two others.

NO SINGLE UN AID TRUCK CROSSED SYRIA

UN's humanitarian aid chief Mark Lowcock told the UNSC that the organization delivers 1,000 trucks of cross-border aid to northwestern Syria every month and added: "We have yet to see even a single truck, just once, cross line."

Lowcock said that the reason of malnutrition in northwestern Syria is that the aid effort is not "big enough," while more than 75% of the civilians rely on UN aid.

He also said the hospital attack was "obviously deliberate".

For her part, UNICEF's Executive Director Henrietta Fore underlined that across Syria, "nearly 90% of children require humanitarian assistance".

"3.2 million inside Syria and neighboring countries are out-of-school," Fore said. "In the northeast, more than 37,000 children are languishing in the al-Hol and al-Roj camps. Over 800 children are in detention centers and prisons."

She urged the council to "renew the resolution on cross-border assistance" and "spare no effort to reach an agreement on accessing children through cross-line operations to reach Idlib Governorate and other parts of the northwest."

Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN figures.