How Syria’s Bab Al-Hawa aid corridor became hostage in a geopolitical game

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Years of conflict have plunged millions of Syrians into poverty. (AFP)
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Updated 19 June 2022
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How Syria’s Bab Al-Hawa aid corridor became hostage in a geopolitical game

  • Delivering UN aid directly to opposition-held areas dependent on fragile cross-border mechanism
  • Closing Bab Al-Hawa would “condemn civilians in need to death and hunger,” warns UNSC president

NEW YORK CITY: The four million people in northwest Syria who rely on international aid to survive are unsure whether there will be bread on their tables after July 10. That is when an increasingly fragile UN cross-border mechanism for delivering aid to Syria is set to expire.

Its renewal is up for a vote at the UN Security Council next month amid fears that Russia will use its power of veto to close the last remaining UN-facilitated gateway for aid into Syria, Bab Al-Hawa on the border with Turkey.

Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s permanent representative to the UN and the president of the Security Council for the month of June, told Arab News during a press conference that the closure of the only border crossing would amount to “a condemnation to death, starvation and hunger to millions of people.”

He added: “I hope no one, not Russia nor any other country, would come to that decision: To condemn civilians in need to death and hunger.”

While the world’s media might have stopped counting the numbers of dead and injured in the Syrian conflict, the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the largest number of internally displaced people in the world lay bare the fact that the war is far from over.




Ninety percent of Syria's population live below the poverty line, with many families left to scavenge to survive. (AFP file photo)

Syria continues to experience one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with 90 percent of the population living below poverty line. According to the World Food Program, 14.6 million people now need humanitarian assistance to survive, an increase of 1.2 million compared with last year.

The collapsing economy, coupled with a looming global food shortage as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, have added a new layer of complexity to the situation. Now, the WFP warns, the threat of famine is knocking on Syria’s door.




Ninety percent of Syria's population live below the poverty line, with many families left to scavenge to survive. (AFP file photo)

The cross-border mechanism was created in 2014 to allow the delivery of UN humanitarian aid directly to opposition-held areas of Syria. International humanitarian law requires that all aid deliveries should go through the host government.

However, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s tactic of treating humanitarian supplies as a weapon of war prompted the Security Council to resort to approving the use of four aid crossings along the Syrian border: one from Jordan, one from Iraq and two from Turkey.

Until December 2019, the members of the Security Council renewed the mandate for these crossings without much fuss. In January 2020, however, permanent member Russia used its power of veto to force the closure of all but one: Bab Al-Hawa.




A convoy transporting humanitarian aid crosses into Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on Jan. 18, 2022. (AFP)

If this last remaining crossing is closed — and the fear that this could happen is real — humanitarian agencies say they will be unable to feed more than about 10 percent of those in need. Moreover, finding any alternative to the UN aid operations is nearly impossible.

“The problem is that you have organizations and institutions that have been in emergency mode for 12 years,” said Jomana Qaddour, co-founder of Syria Relief & Development, a humanitarian organization active in northwestern Syria.

“The Syrian crisis has been so consuming and so overwhelming that planning for a massive humanitarian response now — under a totally different umbrella with all the buy-ins from the various different actors, from the local level to international donors — would be really quite a feat.”




A truck carrying aid packages from the World Food Program drives through the town of Hazano in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria's Idlib province, on May 16, 2022. (Omar Haj Kadour / AFP)

The effects of the war on Ukraine on food security are “systematic, severe and speeding up,” according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He has said that the war, combined with other crises, threatens to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake.

Lamenting the skyrocketing prices of food and a near doubling of the cost of fertilizers, and the resultant shortages of corn, wheat, rice and other staple crops, Guterres warned that while this year’s food crisis is about lack of access, “next year’s could be about lack of food.”

INNUMBERS

90% of Syrian population lives below the poverty line.

14.6m Syrians are dependent on humanitarian assistance.

While the UN warns that no country will be untouched by looming food shortages, especially those that are already vulnerable, one can only imagine the devastating severity of its effects on a place such as Syria, which has been reeling under similar conditions for the past 12 years of conflict.

In the run-up to the Security Council vote in July, intensive negotiations for a new resolution to extend the cross-border mechanism are continuing behind closed doors, led by Ireland and Norway, according to sources at the Irish mission to the UN.




Civil society activists, aid, and medical and rescue services form a human chain rally on July 2, 2021 calling for the continued passage of humanitarian aid into Syria's rebel-held Idlib. (AFP file)

The two countries are the chief advocates at the UN for humanitarian issues in Syria. Last year at around this time, their ambassadors to the UN, Geraldine Byrne Nason and Mona Juul, were seen rushing back and forth from one UN chamber to another, trying to rally council members around a resolution they had drafted to reauthorize Bab Al-Hawa.

When Russia and the US agreed a compromise on the issue last year, American President Joe Biden hailed it as a diplomatic victory. The vote took place just days after he had held a summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, during which the cross-border issue was discussed.

After the successful adoption of Resolution 2585 by the council last year, both leaders commended “the joint work of their respective teams following the US-Russia summit that led to the unanimous renewal of cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria today in the Security Council.”




An aerial picture shows camps for displaced Syrians in the village of Killi, near Bab al-Hawa by the border with Turkey, in Idlib province, on Jan.9, 2021. (AFP photo)

The US had long asserted that progress on the aid process would open the door to more meaningful engagement with Russia on some of the thornier diplomatic questions relating to Syria, such as the issue of detainees and the forcibly disappeared, the return of refugees, and the work of the constitutional committee.

This time around, however, diplomatic talks between the two major powers have all but ground to a halt following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, has been investing her personal legacy in seeking an extension to the mandate for Bab Al-Hawa. She touched on the issue during several of the meetings she convened when her country held the presidency of the Security Council in May.




Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, h

She also recently returned from an official trip to Turkey, her second this year, during which she visited the Syrian border to assess the potential consequences should the UN be forced in July to end its humanitarian deliveries to Idlib. She warned that without aid, “babies will die.”

“We have not forgotten Syria,” Thomas-Greenfield said as she vowed to do “everything possible” to ensure the UN mandate to deliver cross-border aid continues and is expanded to meet the growing needs on the ground. She said she would try to reopen discussions with Russian diplomats at the UN in an effort to keep the aid flowing.

The Russian mission at the UN did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but Dmitry Polyanskiy, Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, recently offered a pessimistic view of the prospects for a revival of diplomacy with Washington, citing the “current geopolitical circumstances.”




An aerial view shows a convoy transporting humanitarian aid parked at customs in Syria after crossing from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on Jan. 18, 2022. ( AFP)

Russia argues that the cross-border mechanism violates the sovereignty of Syria. With China’s backing, Moscow has lobbied for all aid to be channeled through Assad’s government and blames the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country on American and European sanctions against the Syrian regime.

Critics of Russia’s stance say Moscow’s priority is not cross-border assistance, and that it seeks to use its power of veto as leverage to gain support for its position on Syria. According to the critics, Russian diplomats at the UN have been linking the vote on the cross-border mechanism to unrelated issues such as sanctions relief, reconstruction efforts and counterterrorism.

While UN chief Guterres has repeatedly asserted that cross-border operations are among the most transparent and scrutinized mechanisms in the world, Russia claims that the aid that flows through them has been benefiting designated terrorist groups in and around Idlib, such as Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.

Washington declared a victory when the cross-border mechanism was renewed last year, but Qaddour, who in addition to her work with Syria Relief & Development is also a senior fellow with the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, believes it is Russia that has gained the most from this situation.

She believes it is unlikely that the extension of the Bab Al-Hawa gateway will be vetoed, the reason being that this is a useful political card that has been played repeatedly, and will be played again in the future.




Jomana Qaddour. (Supplied)

In each round of renewals, according to Qaddour, Moscow has been able to extract a variety of concessions from Washington and its allies, such as a UN resolution endorsing certain early recovery projects that were previously contingent on a broader political settlement, as well as a qualified easing of sanctions on the Assad regime.

“This confusion over what the West is actually gaining from these negotiations places them, at a minimum, in a weak position,” Qaddour told Arab News. “And, at the maximum, it does hamper the ability of partners, such as aid organizations, to continue to rely on UN aid.”

The Syrian civil war has presented Putin with an opportunity to re-establish Russia as a powerful player in the region by protecting its ally and defeating what it considers a US-led regime-change campaign.

“Syria was the stage for Russian resurgence,” said Qaddour. “I can’t be optimistic to think that this is going to be a place that Russia abandons with ease. This is something they will continue to absolutely fight for and shape.




Displaced Syrians protest against the regime and its ally Russia at a camp for displaced people in Kafr Lusin near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey on Sept. 7, 2018. (AFP)

Not that Syria is close to being uppermost on the agenda in Washington, said Qaddour.

“Am I under any illusion that the US or the West are recalculating and going back and putting Syria at the top of their priority list? No. I don’t think that anything indicates such a reprioritization in the US foreign policy circle. Ukraine now dominates everything,” she said.

Meanwhile, even if the aid corridor is not blocked, the northwest of Syria remains one of the most vulnerable areas in the country. Many agree that its ultimate fate lies thousands of miles away in New York, where calls for reforms to the Security Council have become louder since the start of the war in Ukraine — reforms that would allow humanitarian assistance to be delivered to the most vulnerable people without worrying whether it might be blocked by a veto from a permanent member of the council.

 


Gaza civil defense says Israeli forces kill 28 people

Updated 26 July 2025
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli forces kill 28 people

  • The toll includes at least eight people killed by Israeli fire while waiting to collect humanitarian aid, Bassal said

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli military operations killed at least 23 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, with another five killed in an overnight air strike.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed in a strike on Gaza City that hit a school building sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, now in its 22nd month.
Bassal said five others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent used by displaced Palestinians also in Gaza City, in the territory’s north.
The Israeli military said that strike was carried out late Thursday, targeting “a key terrorist in the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization,” a militant group that has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.
According to the civil defense agency, more than a dozen other Palestinians were killed in several strikes in Gaza’s north, center and south on Friday.
The toll includes at least eight people killed by Israeli fire while waiting to collect humanitarian aid, Bassal said.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military did not comment on the agency’s reports.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after a deadly attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli campaign has killed 59,676 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

 


Tunisians protest aginst President Saied, call country an ‘open-air prison’

Updated 25 July 2025
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Tunisians protest aginst President Saied, call country an ‘open-air prison’

  • Under the slogan “The Republic is a large prison,” protesters marched along Habib Bourguiba Avenue
  • They chanted slogans such as “no fear, no terror ... streets belong to the people” and “The people want the fall of the regime”

TUNIS: Hundreds of Tunisian activists protested in the capital on Friday against President Kais Saied, denouncing his rule as an “authoritarian regime” that has turned the country into an “open-air prison”.

Under the slogan “The Republic is a large prison,” protesters marched along Habib Bourguiba Avenue. They demanded the release of jailed opposition leaders, journalists, and activists.

The protest marked the fourth anniversary of Saied’s power grab. In 2021, he dissolved the elected parliament and started ruling by decree, a move the opposition called a coup.

They chanted slogans such as “no fear, no terror ... streets belong to the people” and “The people want the fall of the regime”.

The protesters said Tunisia under Saied has descended into authoritarianism, with mass arrests and politically motivated trials silencing dissent.

“Our first aim is to battle against tyranny to restore the democracy and to demand the release of the political detainees,” Monia Ibrahim, wife of imprisoned politician Abdelhamid Jelassi, told Reuters.

In 2022, Saied dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges, a move the opposition said was aimed to cement one-man rule.

Saied said he does not interfere in the judiciary, but no one is above accountability, regardless of their name or position.

Most prominent opposition leaders are in prison, including Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist Ennahda party, and Abir Moussi, leader of the Free Constitutional Party.

They are among dozens of politicians, lawyers, and journalists facing lengthy prison sentences under anti-terrorism and conspiracy laws.

Others have fled the country, seeking asylum in Western countries.

In 2023, Saied said the politicians were “traitors and terrorists” and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.

“Prisons are crowded with Saied’s opponents, activists, journalists,” said Saib Souab, son of Ahmed Souab, the imprisoned lawyer Ahmed Souab who is a critical voice of Saied.

“Tunisia has turned into an open-air prison. ... Even those not behind bars live in a state of temporary freedom, constantly at risk of arrest for any reason.,” he added.


Israel says intercepted missile fired from Yemen

Updated 25 July 2025
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Israel says intercepted missile fired from Yemen

  • A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the air force, said a military statement

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it intercepted on Friday a missile launched from Yemen toward its territory, after reporting that sirens sounded in several areas.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted” by the air force, the military said in a statement.


Israel strike kills one in south Lebanon

Updated 25 July 2025
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Israel strike kills one in south Lebanon

  • Health ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Baraachit resulted in one dead
  • Israel’s military said it had “eliminated the personnel officer for Hezbollah’s Bint Jbeil sector“

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Friday killed one person, authorities said, with the Israeli military identifying the slain man as an official with militant group Hezbollah.

Israel has repeatedly struck Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The Lebanese health ministry said Friday that “an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the village of Baraachit resulted in one dead.”

The Israeli military said it had “eliminated the personnel officer for Hezbollah’s Bint Jbeil sector,” near the Israeli border.

The man “was involved in efforts to rehabilitate the terrorist organization in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon and operated to recruit terrorists during the war,” a military statement said.

On Thursday, Israel said it had struck Hezbollah weapons depots and a rocket launcher, and “eliminated a Hezbollah terrorist” in Lebanon’s south.

Under the November truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving Lebanon’s army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was to withdraw its troops from Lebanon but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.


Paramilitary attacks kill 30 in Sudan village

Updated 25 July 2025
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Paramilitary attacks kill 30 in Sudan village

  • The group added that the RSF also stormed major medical facilities in the city, expelling patients and using hospitals to treat wounded paramilitary fighters

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed at least 30 civilians in a two-day assault on a village in the country’s western region of Kordofan, a war monitor said Friday.
In recent months, as the war between the paramilitary troops and the regular army roared into its third year, Kordofan has emerged as a key battlefront, with the paramilitaries seeking to consolidate their control in the west after losing the capital Khartoum.
The Emergency Lawyers, a group that has documented atrocities throughout the war, said paramilitary fighters attacked the village of Brima Rasheed on Wednesday and Thursday, killing three civilians in the first raid and 27 others the following day.
It added in a statement that the dead included women and children.

FASTFACTS

• In recent months, as the war between the paramilitary troops and the regular army roared into its third year, Kordofan has emerged as a key battlefront.

• The Emergency Lawyers, a group that has documented atrocities throughout the war, said paramilitary fighters attacked the village of Brima Rasheed on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Emergency Lawyers said the paramilitary troops’ “indiscriminate killing” of civilians constituted “a serious violation” of international law.
Casualty figures are nearly impossible to independently verify, with most health facilities shut down and large swaths of Sudan inaccessible to journalists.
The monitor said sporadic clashes were also reported between paramilitary fighters and armed civilians in Brima Rasheed village, near the RSF-held city of En Nahud in West Kordofan state — a key transit point once used by the army to send reinforcements further west.
The Emergency Lawyers said that in recent days violence has spread across En Nahud, with reports of dozens of civilians killed and residential areas attacked.
The group added that the RSF also stormed major medical facilities in the city, expelling patients and using hospitals to treat wounded paramilitary fighters.
Those who resisted were beaten or detained, the Emergency Lawyers said.
Meanwhile, the UN said Friday that more than 1.3 million people who fled the fighting in Sudan have headed home, pleading for greater international aid to help returnees rebuild shattered lives.
Over a million internally displaced people have returned to their homes in recent months, UN agencies said.
A further 320,000 refugees have crossed back into Sudan this year, mainly from neighboring Egypt and South Sudan.
While fighting has subsided in the “pockets of relative safety” to where people are beginning to return, the situation remains highly precarious, the UN said.
In a joint statement, the UN’s IOM migration agency, UNHCR refugee agency and UNDP development agency called for an urgent increase in financial support to fund the recovery as people begin to return.
It said humanitarian operations were “massively underfunded.”
Sudan has 10 million IDPs, including 7.7 million forced from their homes by the current conflict, they said.
Over 4 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Sudan is “the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered,” the IOM’s regional director Othman Belbeisi, speaking from Port Sudan, told a media briefing in Geneva.
He said most of the returns (71 percent) had been to Al-Jazira state, while 8 percent had been to Khartoum.
Other returnees were mostly heading for Sennar state. Both Al-Jazira and Sennar are located southeast of Khartoum.
With the army controlling Sudan’s center, north and east, and the RSF holding nearly all of the western Darfur region, Kordofan in the south has become the main battleground of the war in recent weeks.
“We expect 2.1 million to return to Khartoum by the end of this year but this will depend on many factors, especially the security situation and the ability to restore services in a timely manner,” Belbeisi said.
He said the “vicious, horrifying civil war continues to take lives with impunity,” imploring the warring factions to put down their guns.
“The war has unleashed hell for millions and millions of ordinary people,” he said.
“Sudan is a living nightmare. The violence needs to stop.”