Syria UN Ambassador Bassam al-Sabbagh on Friday announced that the Syrian government had granted permission to the UN and its agencies to use the Bab al-Hawa border crossing to deliver aid.

This came after a Russian blockade at the UN Security said it would let the United Nations continue humanitarian aid deliveries from Turkey to rebel-held areas of the country, which has been embroiled in a civil war for more than a decade.

The UN confirmed receipt of the letter, which dpa has seen. The permission is valid for six months.

In recent years, Syria’s authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad had insisted on closing border crossings to regain influence over rebel-held parts of the country.

Some Syrian opposition activists doubt the motives for Mr al-Assad government’s move.

Yasser al-Farhan, a Syrian opposition figure and a rights advocate, told dpa that “in this way, the Syrian regime is trying to whitewash its face in front of the world community and say look, we are not blocking aid.”

“We do not want the Syrian humanitarian issues to stay hostages in the hands of the Russians,” a group of Syrian opposition lawyers, human rights advocates and politicians said in a petition sent out on Friday.

They warned that hampering adequate humanitarian aid deliveries across borders to rebel-held areas would lead to new waves of refugees from northern Syria fleeing to neighbouring countries, then onwards to Europe and beyond.

“We affirm that the Assad regime’s announcement that aid may cross the border for a period of six months is nothing but a new ploy aimed at circumventing UN resolutions and continuing its policies of hindering international efforts to rescue and assist Syrians,” the petitioners wrote.

Recently, millions of people in need in northwestern Syria have been cut off from supplies after Russia vetoed a nine-month extension of the mechanism at the Security Council.

A counter-proposal by Moscow, which would have provided for a six-month extension, also failed. Russia is one of the closest allies of Syria’s government.

According to the UN, 85 per cent of all goods for Syria’s northwest pass through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which has been closed since Monday night.

The UN says 4.1 million people in this region need assistance.

After a devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey a few months ago, Mr al-Assad temporarily opened two more border crossings with Turkey, Bab al-Salam and Al-Ra’ee, which remain open.

Bab al-Hawa, however, is a more significant crossing. 

(dpa/NAN)