The closed session of the UN Security Council to discuss support for the earthquake victims in northern Syria ended without presenting a draft resolution to support the work of additional border crossings, which the Syrian regime agreed to open for the entry of humanitarian aid into northwestern regions of Syria.

The United States, Britain and other countries are seeking to support the work of border points with a UN resolution, an idea rejected by Russia and considered a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

There was a divergence of positions during the session devoted to voting on a resolution obligating the Syrian regime to open the crossings for aid convoys to northern Syria.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, had welcomed what he said was the agreement of the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, to open two crossing points between Turkey and northwestern Syria for the entry of aid, and added that the opening of the two crossings would be for an initial period of 3 months.

Assad's approval means the UN can now use a total of three border crossings with Turkey to reach war-torn northwest Syria.

Before the earthquake, humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria - the area not under the control of the Syrian regime - entered from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, the only crossing point guaranteed by a Security Council resolution on cross-border aid.

He urged the French delegate to the UN Security Council, Nicolas de Rivière, to issue a resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, if the United Nations encountered any obstacles when trying to bring aid through the "Al-Salamah" and "Al-Rai" crossings into northern Syria.

But Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said that the decision was not necessary "because it is a sovereign decision for Syria," and considered that the current authorization of the Security Council to deliver aid to the United Nations through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing is a violation of Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Polyansky warned that any pressure for a solution would politicize the issue and would not help the Syrians.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bassam Al-Sabbagh, confirmed that Syria will support the delivery of humanitarian aid through all possible points inside Syria or across the border for a period of 3 months.

He told reporters that the council's decision was not required because it was an agreement between Syria and the United Nations.

Passing the resolution requires 9 votes in favor and that Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France do not veto.


additional crossings

The permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, had earlier appealed to the UN Security Council to approve the opening of two additional crossings in Syria.

In an interview with MSNBC, Greenfield said that the delay in opening more crossings means the death of more earthquake victims in Syria.

For his part, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Washington will continue to press for a Security Council resolution authorizing the opening of additional crossings to transport relief to the afflicted in northwestern Syria.

White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre stressed the need to open two additional crossings to enhance aid operations in northern Syria, and said that the total number of international aid trucks that entered Syria across the Turkish border amounted to 52.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said that the relief teams of the international organization are making great efforts in the field to provide relief to those affected by the earthquake.

Regarding accusations of failure to respond to the crisis, Haq said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that the United Nations provides the required briefings regarding the repercussions of the earthquake, but decisions remain in the hands of the member states of the Security Council.

Haq stressed that additional aid is on its way to northern Syria, and that attempts are being made to deliver it across the contact lines, stressing the need to open other crossings besides the Bab al-Hawa crossing, given the exceptional circumstances that northern Syria is going through.

In the same context, the European Commissioner in charge of crisis management, Janis Lenarcic, said that the European Union is working to deliver aid to the Syrian people quickly, fairly and in an appropriate manner.

During his speech before the European Parliament, he called on the United Nations to establish an urgent air bridge, and announced the organization of a conference for donor countries next month to support the affected people in Turkey and Syria.


Growing crisis

This comes while the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the effects of the recent earthquake will exacerbate the conditions of Syrian families, and said that the need for emergency assistance in Syria has reached its highest level ever after 12 years of devastating war and the destruction of half of the health facilities.

She added that Syrian families need basic supplies such as food, shelter and medicine, and that funding for humanitarian work in Syria is very low.

The warning of the International Red Cross comes at a time when thousands of those affected by the earthquake in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib live in the open in light of the scarcity of aid and the faltering relief, and the unprecedented burdens faced by health facilities in the region.

The suffering of the afflicted is exacerbated in Jenderes, in the countryside of Aleppo, especially with the severe drop in temperature and the lack of tents to alleviate their suffering.

The death toll from the earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria exceeded 37,000, after more bodies were recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the two countries, with hopes fading of finding survivors 8 days after the disaster.

The two countries are counting the material and human losses caused by this devastating earthquake that occurred at dawn on the sixth of February, and the death toll in Turkey exceeded 31,643 people, while the death toll in Syria reached about 5,714, and the injured reached 7,396.