Turkey urges UN Security council to allow humanitarian access through border crossings under FSA control

The U.N. Security Council authorized on July 14 humanitarian convoys to enter through four border crossings, across Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, without the approval of the government in Damascus. The resolution will allow aid deliveries to take place at Turkey’s Cilvegözü (Bab al-Hawa) and Öncüpınar (Bab al-Salam) border gates into areas held by Syrian rebels.

The council’s action is a follow-up to a resolution adopted in February where they demanded that humanitarian aid be delivered to Syria safely and unhindered. 

The previous resolution by the U.N. Security Council executed cross-border humanitarian operations through the Nusaybin (Qamishli) border gate. But, Turkey urged the Security Council to conduct humanitarian access through Cilvegözü and Öncüpınar, “because these crossings are closer to Syrian refugees than the other [border] gates,” a Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News.

“The U.N., in the framework of Resolution 2139, requested by Turkey in March to allow the passage of cross-border humanitarian convoys into Syria through the Nusaybin border gate and we responded positively to the U.N. request. But, we also notified the U.N. to urgently plan and execute cross-border humanitarian operations into Syria through all border gates, including the Cilvegözü and Öncüpınar border gates, which are under the control of the Free Syrian Army [FSA] on the Syrian side,” said the diplomat.

The new resolution also allows aid deliveries across al-Yarubiyah on the Iraq-Syrian border and al-Ramtha on the Jordanian-Syrian border.

In June, Syria’s regime warned the Security Council that delivering aid across its borders into opposition-held...