UN Security Council authorizes humanitarian aid delivery in Syria

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for quickening the pace of humanitarian aid deliveries in Syria, authorizing cross-border humanitarian access.
UNSC resolution No 2165 provides for delivery of aid to the people in need in Syria through direct ways with no restrictions or discrimination, and it demands establishing a mechanism for supervision under the authority of the UN Secretary-General that monitors humanitarian assistance to get access into Syria through specific border crossings for 180 days.
Al-Jaafari: certain circles and powers use “creative terrorism” as a tool for exacerbating the humanitarian situation in Syria
Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said certain circles and powers have used “creative terrorism” as a tool for exacerbating the humanitarian situation in Syria and pushing meddlesome agendas.
Al-Jaafari expressed Syria’s keen interest in a constructive cooperation with the United Nations and engaging agencies and organizations for addressing humanitarian needs, indicating that 96 Syrian civil organizations and 16 humanitarian NGOs have been licensed.
The Syrian diplomat said the displacement “comes down primarily to foreign backed terrorism. Consequently, an alleviation of the Syrian suffering is contingent on ending terrorism.”
“First and foremost, terrorism must stop for the humanitarian situation in Syria to improve,” al-Jaafari stated, which he said should be coupled with efforts to back national reconciliations that have helped tangibly in improving the situation in the areas where they materialized.
He lambasted as a “the height of contradiction” that an organization is designated a terrorist group while a blind eye is turned to its practices.
Syria is counting on an “efficient, objective and fair” UN role that keeps humanitarian aid away from politicization, al-Jaafari added.
Al-Jaafari clarified that time has come for the UN and the Security Council to courageously stand in face of the Saudi, Qatari and Turkish practices that support terrorism, pointing out that efforts to weaken the Syrian and Iraqi states by all immoral means are the cause of spreading terrorism in the region.
Al-Jaafari added that one of the factors which hinder improvement of the humanitarian situation in Syria are the negative impacts on the Syrian citizen due to the unilateral coercive measures imposed by governments which sponsor terrorism on the Syrian people, which means that those states are certainly part of the humanitarian crisis, not part of its solution.
“One of the reasons behind not improving the humanitarian situation in Syria is the armed terrorist groups’ targeting of the aid convoys, burglarizing them and systematically killing and abducting the humanitarian workers, among them 33 members of the Syria Red Crescent until now,” al-Jaafari said.
He added that another factor which hinders the improvement of the humanitarian situation is the weakness of financing as the response plan of the humanitarian aid for 2014  didn’t exceed 29% of the needed financing.
Al-Jaafari affirmed that the Syrian government relies on an unbiased and responsible role by the UN in dealing with the humanitarian situation, particularly in the field of respecting the Syrian sovereignty and not denying the Syrian government’s  commitment to the humanitarian domain.
“It is not possible to support terrorism and at the same time claiming of efforts being exerted to end the humanitarian suffering in Syria… the obstinacy of some states not to acknowledge committing strategic mistakes in Syria couldn’t express political ripeness or a sense of responsibility towards the humanitarian crisis in Syria,” al-Jaafari said.
He added that the multiple presidential elections recently run in Syria have proved that the first and last choice remains for the Syrian people to draw their future, not for a group of countries which imagine that they are custodian on the world nations’ destiny as these elections have also proved that the Syrian people are immune against pressures or defeat.
Earlier, al-Jaafari started his statement by condemning the Israeli brutal aggression on Gaza Strip and on the Palestinian people and the continued political silence towards the suffering of the Palestinians for more than 66 years.
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said following the vote that the resolution “reflects the elements of arrangements to get humanitarian aid to Syria,” emphasizing need to keep humanitarian aid operations away from politicization.
Churkin lamented “an ever-worsening situation in Syria amid the absence of political solution,” warning that terrorist groups in Syria are being increasingly radicalized.
Churkin cited a July 12 massacre in Hama in which women and girls were cold-bloodedly slain as a telling indication of a deteriorating situation which, he said, prompted the UN Security Council to call for extra measures to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people.
“Aid convoys will take into account the UN principles of delivering humanitarian aid with regards to respecting the territorial safety and independence of Syria,” the Russian UN representative said.
Churkin indicated that a resolution of a humanitarian crisis is tied up with finding a political solution, emphasizing the need to resume the inter-Syrian dialogue according to Geneva communiqué.
For his part, China’s permanent representative to the UN, Li Baodong, stressed that the UN and other humanitarian organizations should work according to the resolution and respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, independence and unity.
“The international community should be committed to the unbiased nature of humanitarian assistance and avoid politicization of humanitarian issues,” he added.
In an article published Saturday on the Lebanese al-Binaa Newspaper Deputy Foreign and expatriates Minister, Fayssal Mikdad, affirmed Syria cooperates with the UN in the humanitarian domains as long as its sovereignty and territorial integrity are not undermined, adding that it respects the international legitimacy, and it looks for an active and honest role of the UN in a way that accords with its Charter and role.