US lawmakers call for pressure on Russia and China to extend aid delivery mechanism to Syria

The heads of the foreign relations committees in the US House of Representatives and Senate called on US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to exert all his efforts to pressure Russia and China to extend the mechanism for international aid to reach Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.

In a letter they sent to the Foreign Minister, the American representatives called on Moscow and Beijing to extend the permission granted to the United Nations to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing to deliver humanitarian aid, and to seek to reopen the Bab al-Salama and al-Yarubiyah crossings.

The representatives also called on the US administration to redouble efforts to stop the attempts of some countries to normalize their relations with the Assad regime, and to work on strict implementation of the Caesar Act.
“Without cross-border access, UN agencies must rely on deliveries across dangerous and unreliable lines, which the Assad regime can disrupt at any time,” the lawmakers said in their letter.

It noted that “extending the mechanism for cross-border humanitarian access is essential to alleviating the suffering of hundreds of thousands of civilians to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe, and helps hamper the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine the ability of the UN Security Council to maintain international peace and security.”

The representatives expressed their “concern about the continued suffering of the Syrians, which ended their first decade,” and affirmed their full support for the renewal of UN Security Council Resolution No. 2532, which seeks the continued delivery of humanitarian aid across the border into Syria.

The letter was signed by Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, Democratic Chairman Gregory W. Mixes, and two prominent senators, Republican Jim Risch and Democrat Bob Menendez.

It is noteworthy that the special mechanism for extending the arrival of international aid to northern Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing will end on the eleventh of next July, amid Russian hints to veto the UN Security Council resolution to extend that mechanism.