In what looks like a puzzling decision, Russia and China vetoed and U.N. Security Council Resolution to get aid shipments from Turkey into Syria, something that has U.N. members scratching their heads. When you consider the collateral damage for the nine-year-old Syrian civil war, you’d think Russian and China would want to get as much medical or humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced persons living in northwestern Syria. Only Russia and China disagree with thirteen other Council members all favor aid shipments from Turkey to Syria. None of the Council members talk about the Syrian War that many backed, including the U.S., Great Britain, France and Germany. Only Russia and China opposed the Syrian War to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Nine years of proxy war financed by Saudi Arabia, U.S., Turkey and European Union states devastated Syria.
Former President Barack Obama and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) wholeheartedly backed Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.S., causing over a nine-year war where over 400,000 deaths and 15 million displaced persons, largely due to Turkey, the European Union [EU] and the U.K. Saudi Arabia-led proxy war against al-Assad drove the U.K. out of the EU Jan. 31, 2020, fulfilling a Brexit referendum June 23, 2016 to have the U.K. stand on its own. Exit polls clearly showed that U.K. voters were worried about pressure from the EU to take larger quotas of Syrian refugees. EU states like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were pushed to the breaking point by Brussels to take more refugees, something they refused to do. Yet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron backed the Saudi proxy war to change regimes in Damascus.
U.S., U.K. and EU members knew that Russia joined the fight to save al-Assad’s Alwawite Shiite regime Sept. 30, 2015. Once Russia steeped in, Obama, former Secretary of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did everything possible to fight Russia’s involvement. While running for president in 2016, Hillary said she would set up a no-fly zone in Syria, putting Russia on notice that she wouldn’t tolerate interference in the Syrian War. Yet Russia came to the aid of the U.N.-recognized sovereign state in Syria, not backing a Saudi-funded proxy war to get rid of al-Assad. U.N.’s 73-year-old Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura did everything possible to back Saudi’s High Negotiations Commission led by Riyad Hijab, to see al-Assad removed from power. Saudi Arabia’s 58-year-old Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said May 10, 2016 that the Kingdom would never give up on Damascus regime change.
So the Security Council doesn’t have a clue why Russia and China would vote to prevent Turkey, who backs the Saudi proxy war to get rind of al-Assad, to re-supply Syrian rebel groups still camping out in northwestern Syria. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was “vital to the well-being of the civilians in northwest Syria . . . lives depend on it,” referring to Syrian Democratic Forces which continue, against all odds, to fight to remove al-Assad from power. What the Security Council refuses to accept is that with Russia’s help, al-Assad has survived what’s left of the 2011 Saudi-backed Arab Spring that tried to get rid of Mideast tyrants,including Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Libya’s Col Muammar Gaddafi. Only al-Assad with 67-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin managed to survive the Saudi-backed proxy war.
U.N. Security Council members hoped to prevail on getting supplies into Syria based on the global coronavirus pandemic. Closing the Iraq border crossing into Syria cuts off 40% of humanitarian and medial supplies, something Syria, Russia and China believes helps re-supply Syrian Democratic Forces still fighting a guerrilla war to topple al-Assad. Last December, Russia and China vetoed another resolution that would have allowed Iraq and Turkey to provide medical and humanitarian relief in Syria. U.S. and EU diplomats need to give reassurances to Russia and China that the aid would not be used to re-supply Syrian Democratic Forces or other Saudi-backed rebel groups continuing, as al-Jubeir promised, to continue the Syrian War. When you consider the collateral damage to the EU, not to mention the worst humanitarian disaster since WW II, you’d think Saudi Arabia would give up.
Getting Russia and China to go along with a medical and humanitarian relief operation from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, U.S. and EU would have to commit to letting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stay in Damascus. Where Obama miscalculated on Syria, 74-year-old President Donald Trump refused to keep funding the same Syrian rebel groups backed by Democrats and GOP war hawks like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). To get Russia and China to agree to any permanent humanitarian or medical relief the Security Council would need to sign a new resolution accepting Syrian President Basha al-Assad as the sovereign government in Syria. All parties, including Saudi Arabia, would have to agree to stop funneling arms to Syrian Democratic Forces and other rebel group seeking to topple Damascus. Only then, would Russian and China agree to medical and humanitarian relief.
