UN slams Damascus conditions for cross-border aid ‘unacceptable’: Reports

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.

A letter from Syrian authorities allowing use of the border crossing between Turkey and Syria “contains two unac-ceptable conditions,” according to a document sent to the UN Security Council from the Office for the Coordina-tion of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

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OCHA said it was concerned that the Syrian government had “stressed that the United Nations should not com-municate 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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