Lavrov: Russia will prevent the United Nations from renewing the mandate of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow does not agree with the United Nations and Western countries, on the lack of an alternative to the delivery of humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria.
Lavrov alluded to his country’s government’s refusal to extend the authorization of humanitarian aid for Syrians across the border with Turkey.

Lavrov indicated, through an oral statement that he conveyed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, that Russia will prevent the United Nations from renewing the mandate of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, whose mandate will expire on July 10.

Lavrov claimed that “since April 2020, Russia has witnessed continuous attempts to obstruct joint humanitarian convoys by the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent to northwest Idlib from Damascus, by (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) and with the complicity of Ankara.”

Humanitarian and medical organizations operating in northern Syria and the Syrian Civil Defense had called on the member states of the Security Council to renew their commitment to the neutrality of humanitarian aid and to renew the Security Council’s resolution on humanitarian operations across the border into northwestern Syria.

The organizations and civil defense called on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities and prevent the file of life-saving humanitarian and medical aid from being turned into a file of blackmail by Russia and the Assad regime, in a statement to them, during a press conference held in Idlib countryside, under the title “Lifeline.”