Syria insists earthquake aid go through Damascus, citing sovereign rights
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday that any outside assistance for earthquake victims must be done in coordination with Damascus and delivered from within Syria, not across the Turkish border.
"I think I answered it very clear yesterday. I said ‘cross line’ is available. The Syrian government is ready to help to support any countries who wanted to provide the shelters, the food supply, the medications to the Syrians," Syrian ambassador Bassam Sabbagh told reporters.
Damascus has long opposed the humanitarian operation that has delivered aid into Syria from Turkey, saying assistance should be delivered from inside Syria.
When pressed by reporters if the urgent need for the earthquake response might change that requirement, Sabbagh said it was a matter of sovereignty.
“It's not that we consider, it's the international law. It is the UN charter. So don't characterize it as this is a position of Syria. It is a position of each and every country who are keen to maintain sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. So it's a principle," said Sabbagh.
Many Syrians sheltering in the rebel-held northwest fear this would once again put their fate in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's hands.
Aid flows from Turkey to northwest Syria have temporarily stopped due to the fallout of a devastating earthquake, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday, leaving aid workers grappling with the problem of how to help people in a country fractured by war.
The cross-border aid operation overseen by the United Nations since 2014 has been crucial to Syrians who fled Assad's rule during the conflict, bypassing the territory he controls.
There was no clear picture of when the aid - upon which some 4 million people depend - would resume.
"We continue to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing as the transhipment hub is actually intact. However, the road that is leading to the crossing has been damaged and that's temporarily disrupted our ability to fully use it," said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday.
The quake that struck in the early hours of Monday has killed more than 7,900 people in Syria and Turkey.
Some 1,220 died in northwestern Syria, with many more believed to be trapped under the rubble in a region where people were already heavily dependent on aid before the disaster.
A similar number of people have been killed in government-held areas, according to the government.
Aid already positioned in the northwest will likely be rapidly depleted, aid officials said.
The Damascus-based Syrian Red Crescent said on Tuesday it was ready to deliver aid across Syria, including to opposition areas.
