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The United Nations is concerned about “unacceptable conditions” set by Damascus for allowing aid to flow through its Bab al-Hawa crossing to rebel-held areas in northwest Syria, according to a document reviewed Friday by AFP. bulletin news
A letter from Syrian authorities allowing use of the border crossing between Turkey and Syria “contains two unacceptable conditions,” according to a document sent to the UN Security Council from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA said it was concerned that the Syrian government had “stressed that the United Nations should not communicate with entities designated as ‘terrorist.'”
The second condition it bridled at was that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) should “supervise and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid” in northwest Syria.
Syria announced on Thursday that it would authorize the UN to use Bab al-Hawa to deliver vital humanitarian aid to millions of people in rebel-held areas for six months.
That announcement followed the expiration on Monday of the mandate of a UN mechanism that has allowed UN convoys since 2014 to use the crossing to rebel areas without authorization from Damascus.
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Notes from APS Radio News
In the early months of 2011, demonstrations and unrest broke out in Doura, in the southern part of Syria.
From that period on, during 2011, massive demonstrations took place, as millions of Syrians protested against the one-party state.
At the same time, there were reports that elements of armed rebels were being supported by the UK, France, the US and Saudi Arabia.
A number of rebels were reported to be members of Islamists.
At various times, representatives of the Syrian government maintained that the West and Saudi Arabia were funding rebel groups.
Not long after demonstrations had commenced that year, during a press conference, Mark Toner, a State Department official, acknowledged that the United State had been sending millions of dollars to rebel groups operating in Syria.
Up to 613,000 people died as a result of the civil war that had taken place in 2011 and beyond.
There were reports of Benghazi in Libya being used as an entropot for the shipment of arms to Syria during that period.
