UN approves 1-year extension of aid from Turkey to Syria

The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday extending the delivery of humanitarian aid for a year from Turkey to rebel-held northwest Syria, where the UN says 3.4 million people are in desperate need of food and other assistance.

The resolution was adopted after the United States and Russia reached a deal on rival draft resolutions backed by the West and Moscow.

 The key issue had been whether the council should authorize deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing to northwest Idlib for another year as the West, UN and humanitarian groups said was critical -- or for six months as Russia, Syria's closest ally, had insisted on.

The current one-year mandate for aid through Bab al-Hawa expires on Saturday.

The resolution authorizes aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa for one year with a report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in six months on the "transparency" of the aid operation and progress on delivering aid across conflict lines within Syria as Russia wanted.

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  A civil defense worker inspects a damage house after shelling hit the town of Ibleen, a village in southern Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, July 3, 2021. Artillery fire from government-controlled territory Saturday killed at least eight civilians in Syria's last rebel enclave, most of them children, rescue workers and a war monitor said. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)