UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia used its veto on Friday to block a one-year extension of UN humanitarian aid from Turkey to nearly four million people living in the north- western Syria, which is beyond the control of President Bashar al Assad.
Thirteen of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the draft resolution drafted by Ireland and Norway, while China abstained.
“It’s a matter of life and death. And tragically, people are going to die because of this vote and the country that shamelessly used its veto power,” said the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
The Security Council has regularly extended for a year, since its first adoption in 2014, the resolution allowing Syrians living in rebel areas to receive humanitarian aid from neighboring Turkey.
Moscow insisted during the preparatory discussions that the aid should only be extended for six months, and submitted a text to this effect to a vote, which only received support from China. The United States, Britain and France voted against and the remaining 10 council members abstained.
“This page of history has been definitively turned,” assured Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polianski. He added that Moscow would continue to provide aid to Syria “while respecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
(Report Michelle Nichols; French version Camille Raynaud and Tangi Salaün)
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