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The UN Security Council was set to adopt a resolution today to keep in place permission for UN convoys to cross Syrian borders to deliver desperately-needed aid, diplomats said.
Resolution 2165, which was adopted July 14, allows trucks to pass through rebel-held areas from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. But the permission ends in January.
In a new text, the Council says it has decided to renew the green light, through January 10, 2016.
The 15 council member states expressed "deep concern at the continuing and new impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance across borders and across conflict lines, encouraging the United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners to take steps to scale up humanitarian deliveries into hard-to-reach and besieged areas," the text says.
They stress that 12.2 million Syrians are in urgent need of aid "of whom 7.6 million are internally displaced, 4.5 million are living in hard-to-reach areas and 212,000 are trapped in besieged areas, including Palestinian refugees," the text says.
It also voiced "deep concern at the continuing and new impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance across borders and across conflict lines, encouraging the United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners to take steps to scale up humanitarian deliveries," the text adds.
The council expresses support in the text for Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy, but also warned "if the violence in Syria continues to escalate, the humanitarian situation will continue to worsen."
The conflict began as a pro-democracy movement demanding the Syrian government's ouster, but later evolved into a brutal war after the regime unleashed a massive crackdown.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in nearly four years, and around half the population has been forced to flee.
Resolution 2165, which was adopted July 14, allows trucks to pass through rebel-held areas from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. But the permission ends in January.
In a new text, the Council says it has decided to renew the green light, through January 10, 2016.
The 15 council member states expressed "deep concern at the continuing and new impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance across borders and across conflict lines, encouraging the United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners to take steps to scale up humanitarian deliveries into hard-to-reach and besieged areas," the text says.
They stress that 12.2 million Syrians are in urgent need of aid "of whom 7.6 million are internally displaced, 4.5 million are living in hard-to-reach areas and 212,000 are trapped in besieged areas, including Palestinian refugees," the text says.
It also voiced "deep concern at the continuing and new impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance across borders and across conflict lines, encouraging the United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners to take steps to scale up humanitarian deliveries," the text adds.
The council expresses support in the text for Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy, but also warned "if the violence in Syria continues to escalate, the humanitarian situation will continue to worsen."
The conflict began as a pro-democracy movement demanding the Syrian government's ouster, but later evolved into a brutal war after the regime unleashed a massive crackdown.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in nearly four years, and around half the population has been forced to flee.
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