Malta urged to use its voice in Security Council and EU to hasten Syrian relief

Humanitarian relief to Syria is not reaching the war-torn country as the West’s sanctions regime against Damascus has closed off routes for the transport of much-needed items and donations for earthquake victims.

The human rights campaigner and social worker Omar Rababah has taken up the mantle for Syria by petitioning Malta’s foreign ministry directly to put pressure, both in the EU as well as president of the United Nations Security Council, to remove the stumbling blocks to succour the vitcims of last week’s massive earthquakes.

“The relief and donations from the Maltese is only reaching Turkey... a policy that is not Malta’s fault but the country can do much about the situation,” Rababah said, who met foreign ministry officials to impress upon them the need to ensure humanitarian relief reaches Syria.

“There are solutions to make sure this relief reaches Syria, but I need the Maltese government’s assistance – as a citizen and a voter, it is all I ask,” Rababah, whose father is Syrian, said.

Omar Rababah

The EU on Monday launched internal discussions over potentially alleviating its sanctions regime against Damascus, in a bid to counter accusations that these measures had deprived civilians of much needed support after the devastating earthquakes that killed over 37,000 in Turkey and Syria.

The punitive measures issued by the US and the EU were issued over the Syrian civil war which began in 2011.

The United States has announced it will ease sanctions for six months.

UN and EU officials have repeatedly said helping Syrians is more difficult than supporting Turkey because of the civil war that has lasted for more than a decade.

Rebel-held areas worst-affected

Large parts of the country remain outside of government control, including the rebel-held north-west, an active war zone near the earthquake’s epicentre in Turkey.

Complicating matters, the UN Security Council had only authorised one border crossing for humanitarian assistance between Turkey and north-western Syria, with accusations by Syrian officials that western sanctions had blocked aid from reaching earthquake victims.

Unlike Syria, which waited three days to make a request for the EU to trigger its civil protection mechanism, Turkey activated it immediately after the earthquake. Brussels has sent more than 1,600 rescue and medical personnel from 25 countries.

Syria’s northwestern rebel-held enclave, where more than four million people have struggled to cope with ruthless air attacks and rampant poverty, was hit hard by the February 6 quakes. Many in the area were already displaced from the ongoing conflict and lived in crowded tent settlements or buildings weakened by past bombings.

The head of a Syrian opposition-run rescue group denounced a United Nations decision to seek authorisation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the delivery of aid to earthquake-stricken northwestern Syria, through additional border crossings with Turkey, saying it allowed him to score a “political gain”. “This is shocking and we are at loss at how the UN is behaving,” Raed al-Saleh, head of the White Helmets, told Reuters.

Assad opens crossing point for three months

Only a single crossing point – Bab al-Hawa – has been open to humanitarians since the 6 February earthquakes, after President Bashar al-Assad open two crossing points of Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra’ee from Turkey to northwest Syria for three months to allow for the timely delivery of humanitarian aid.

It’s clear that “delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency”, said United Nations secretary-general António Guterres. “Opening these crossing points – along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs”, he added, “will allow more aid to go in, faster.”

In northwest Syria, Harim, Afrin and Jebel Saman are the worst-affected districts.

On Monday afternoon in New York, the Security Council held a private meeting, reportedly to discuss the speeding up of aid to stricken areas of northwest Syria.