The UN mandate for the aid operation, which has lasted for eight years, expires on Sunday. After negotiations on Thursday night that pitted Russia against the United States and Britain, the 15-member council agreed to return on Friday for further talks.
Russia only wants to renew the aid operation for six months and demand that the council then adopt a new resolution to extend it for another six months, said Russian deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy.
“Six months end in January, in the middle of winter, the worst possible time,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters.
“A six-month resolution does not provide the certainty and confidence that Syrian refugees need and NGOs (aid groups) need to continue planning and providing support,” said Thomas-Greenfield, who visited the Turkish border post last month to assess the aid operation.
A tentative compromise text, drafted by Ireland and Norway and released late Thursday, would renew the aid operation for another year and require the council to pass a new resolution if the term ends after six months.
Irish UN Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason told reporters she would continue to work overnight and “hope to be back tomorrow morning with a solution”.
The Security Council’s vote on the cross-border aid operation has been a contentious issue for several years.
In 2014, the Security Council authorized deliveries of humanitarian aid to opposition-held areas of Syria from Iraq, Jordan and two points in Turkey. But the veto powers of Russia and China have reduced this authorization to a single point on the Turkish border.
Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the council to extend its approval of Turkish aid deliveries to northwestern Syria, telling the body: “We cannot abandon the people of Syria.”