Timely resolution

The UN Security Council has finally adopted a long-awaited resolution authorising the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance to Syrians inside their country without the consent of Damascus. 

Hitherto, the absence of Syria’s consent to make humanitarian aid accessible to its citizens suffering from the ravages of war had prevented the UN from making good on its efforts to extend this assistance to those who need it. 

Both Russia and China sided with the Syrian government in the past but have now yielded to international pressure and voted in favour of the resolution bypassing Syrian consent after the reference to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter was dropped. 

Chapter 7 would have called for the use of force if necessary to implement the resolution in case of noncompliance. 

The just adopted resolution merely says that the council “affirms” rather than “decides” that it “will take further measures in the event of non-compliance”, meaning steps that could be taken by Damascus to block the delivery of assistance.  

This is a major triumph for international diplomacy. Moscow and Beijing deserve to be commended for changing their tune on humanitarian assistance to Syrians and agreeing to ignore the approval of Damascus. 

The resolution also sends a clear message to Damascus that even its closest allies will no longer stand in the way of providing humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons inside the country. 

There are about 11 million Syrians who stand to benefit from this newly adopted resolution, despite the fact that about half of them are still in hard-to-reach areas of the country and may not receive humanitarian aid for the time being at least. 

This resolution also opens a new page in the Syrian conflict and offers a window of opportunity for the adoption of follow up resolutions that could pave the way for a political settlement of the Syrian conflict.