The United States' envoy to the United Nations said Thursday the sole border crossing to deliver aid into Syria must remain open, amid Russian threats to veto a resolution to protect it.
The Syrian regime's main ally Russia could block the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution, which expires on July 10, and observers say it is using it as a bargaining chip in the face of punishing sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Bab al-Hawa crossing near Turkey's Cilvegözü border post in the south has been the only point of entry for U.N. aid into Syria for the past two years.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday it was imperative for the opening to stay open.
"We have to extend this border crossing, we have to continue to provide this assistance," said Thomas-Greenfield from a U.N. logistics center in Reyhanlı, near the Turkey-Syria border.
Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the crossing last year bound for the Idlib region, the last opposition bastion in Syria and home to around three million people live.
"We know that the situation is already dire there, that people are suffering now," Thomas-Greenfield said.
"It's going to increase the sufferings, it's going to increase the number of people who will displace and possibly even the number of people who may try to cross the border into Turkey."
The ambassador thanked Turkey for facilitating and supporting humanitarian aid to war-torn Syria, while speaking to reporters after visiting the World Food Program (WFP) distribution center in the Reyhanlı district of the southern Hatay province. She expressed her gratitude to the Turkish government for hosting refugees.
She recalled the U.S. announcement last month of $800 million in additional humanitarian aid, adding that they expect a decision to extend the cross-border aid to Syria at the UNSC session slated for July 10.
She was in Reyhanlı to meet with NGO and U.N. agencies' representatives who are working to provide assistance to Syrians.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the U.N., said on May 20 that Moscow saw no reason to keep the crossing open, saying it violates Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Thomas-Greenfield also said she plans to meet her Russian counterpart to kick off likely contentious talks over aid deliveries into Syria from Turkey, but she will not let Moscow use the issue as a "bargaining chip" on Ukraine.
Thomas-Greenfield has had few interactions with Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia outside meetings of the 15-member UNSC since Moscow invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24.
"Since Ukraine, we have not had any regular meetings, but it is my intention - when I return to New York - to meet with him on Syria," she told reporters while traveling back to the United States from Turkey, where she visited the border with Syria to assess the long-running humanitarian aid operation.
Already fraught tensions between the United States and Russia have only worsened in recent months. Washington has responded to Russia's war in Ukraine with tough unilateral sanctions on Moscow, sent weapons to Ukraine and internationally isolated Russia at the United Nations.
"We will not allow the situation in Ukraine or the situation in Syria to be used as a bargaining chip with the Russians," warned Thomas-Greenfield ahead of UNSC negotiations on the Syria aid operation.
A Security Council resolution needs nine votes in favor and no veto by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain to pass. In the past decade, the council has been divided on Syria while Russia has vetoed more than a dozen resolutions related to Syria and was backed by China for many of those votes.
"It's a massive ongoing operation and it would be so tragic, so catastrophic, if this Security Council resolution is not renewed," Mark Cutts, deputy U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator, told Thomas-Greenfield during the visit to a U.N. shipment hub on the Turkish border with Syria on Thursday.
Every month some 800 trucks deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 4 million people in northwest Syria.
"Every single truck is monitored by the U.N.," Cutts said. "Without the U.N. involvement we fear that donors will not have the same confidence to support this operation, we might see much more aid diversion."