Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
July 9, 2022
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) stresses that the veto that Russia cast to block the renewal of the UN mandate for the cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria for a period of one year is a new crime that is added to its endless litany of crimes against the Syrian people. Millions in Syrian will face an arduous challenge to survive as a result of this veto.
Russia did not stop at bombing, killings and displacement, but also carried out aggression against the Syrian people in every way it could, especially in the humanitarian field, depriving them of food and medicine, and threatening the lives of millions of people by turning the humanitarian file into a bargaining chip in the service of the criminal Assad regime.
The continued blackmail of Russia through the use of its veto in the Security Council and allowing it to determine the fate of millions of people in the liberated areas indicates the existence of a defect in the structure of the Security Council. Indeed, this Council has not been able to do justice to the Syrian people despite the passage of eleven years of their rightful demands for freedom and dignity and the overthrow of this regime which has committed thousands of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The SOC commends the good efforts of the friends of the Syrian people in the Security Council and the United Nations as it calls on these countries, especially by the United States, not to give in to Russian blackmail represented by this continued obstructionism. The SOC also calls for taking the vote to the UN General Assembly in order to overcome the repeated Russian obstruction of this issue, finding an alternative mechanism for bringing aid into Syria across the border, and seeking to avoid the occurrence of humanitarian disasters against millions of Syrians who are living in extremely difficult and complex conditions.
