UN approves 1-year extension of aid from Turkey to Syria

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday extending the delivery of humanitarian aid for a year from Turkey to rebel-held northwest Syria, where the U.N. says 3.4 million people are in desperate need of food and other assistance.

The resolution was adopted after the United States and Russia reached a deal on rival draft resolutions backed by the West and Moscow.

The key issue had been whether the council should authorize deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing to northwest Idlib for another year as the West, U.N. and humanitarian groups said was critical — or for six months as Russia, Syria’s closest ally, had insisted on. The current one-year mandate for aid through Bab al-Hawa expires on Saturday.

The resolution authorizes aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa for one year with a report from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in six months on the “transparency” of the aid operation and progress on delivering aid across conflict lines within Syria as Russia wanted.

The Associated Press