Syria accused of playing politics with aid in aftermath of earthquake

Syria was accused of playing politics with aid after the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said his country should be responsible for the delivery of all aid into Syria, including those areas not under Syrian government control.

The dispute over the control of the aid – along with the weather, destroyed roads and closed crossing points – is hampering aid efforts into northern Syria, which is held by rebel groups.

Andrew Mitchell, the UK aid minister, acknowledged the problem of sending aid into northern Syria, but said the UK would be working with the White Helmets civilian defence force as it has for many years in the region. But he said more crossing points from Turkey into northern Syria needed to be opened.

The government in Damascus allows aid to enter the region through only one border crossing.

Syria has been resistant to allowing aid into a region serving more than 4 million people because it regards the aid as undermining Syrian sovereignty and reducing its chances of winning back control of the region.

“The areas worst affected by the earthquake inside Syria look to be run by the Turkish-controlled opposition and not by the Syrian government,” said Mark Lowcock, the former head of UN humanitarian affairs. “It is going to require Turkish acquiescence to get aid into those areas. It is unlikely the Syrian government will do much to help.”

Sabbagh told reporters in New York that António Guterres, the UN secretary general, “assured us that the UN will do all it’s possible in helping Syria in this very difficult situation”.

Sabbagh was asked whether Syria would agree to allow the UN to deliver aid through other crossing points from Turkey, if that is feasible. He did not respond directly, but said the government was ready to help and coordinate aid deliveries “to all Syrians in all territory of Syria”.

More than 1,400 people have died in Syria as a result of the earthquake, according to both Damascus and authorities in the north-west part of the country controlled by anti-regime forces.

Ned Rice, the US secretary of state spokesperson, ruled out delivering aid through the Syrian government, saying “it would be ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalised its people over the course of a dozen years now – gassing them, slaughtering them, being responsible for much of the suffering that they have endured.

“Instead, we have humanitarian partners on the ground who can provide the type of assistance in the aftermath of these tragic earthquakes. These partners, who unlike the Syrian regime, are there to help the people rather than brutalize them”.

He added: “The people of Syria need humanitarian access. NGO actors, these organisations, many of whom have been active in parts of Syria over the course of a dozen years now, need to have access to be able to go back and forth across the border, to deliver humanitarian assistance.”

Qutaiba Idlbi, Syria’s lead at the Atlantic Council thinktank, said the insistence of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, on “cross-line aid [aid delivered from government held areas into rebel-held areas] is not about how aid is routed into affected areas, but about who distributes the aid and controls the economy of the humanitarian operations in the north-west. Make no mistake, the Assad government has no capacity to implement any aid operation in north-west Syria.”

There is a wider concern that Turkey, facing larger loss of life, is focused understandably on saving its own citizens and will not be able to prioritise help into areas of Syria where forces that it backs have been operating. The distribution of the aid effort, and a possible clash between the Russian- and western-backed aid effort, is likely to prove problematic in the days ahead.