UN Security Council Rejects Russian Draft Resolution on Humanitarian Aid to Syria

Earlier, Russia and China blocked the western version of the resolution on Syria. The UN Security Council has exactly one day left to develop a document that would extend the humanitarian aid supply to Syria. The UN Security Council rejected a draft resolution submitted by Russia on cross-border supplies of humanitarian aid to residents of northwestern Syria. Only four out of 15 Security Council members supported the Russian draft - Russia, China, Vietnam and South Africa, seven other countries, including Germany, the USA, Great Britain and France, voted against, the rest abstained, Christoph Heusgen, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations, said Wednesday evening, July 8. Russia proposed leaving only one of the two border crossings to Syria open for humanitarian aid. On July 7, the Russian Federation and China vetoed the German-Belgian draft resolution, which proposed leaving two checkpoints on the Turkish-Syrian border open. The Western draft also proposed to extend the supply of humanitarian aid to Syria for one year, while the Russian one - only for six months. The Security Council now has one day left to agree on the conditions for extending the supply of humanitarian aid to Syria. This program expires on July 10th. About three million people in northwestern Syria depend on the aid from the world community.