Politics

Key Congressmen call for re-opening border crossing to send aid into Northeast Syria

"The closure of the Yarubiyah border crossing between Iraq and northeast Syria has hindered the overall humanitarian response."

Laurie Mylroie 2020/05/13 06:07

world Syria United Nations Yarubiyah United States COVID-19

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – The Chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with the ranking members of each committee, called on the Trump administration to secure the re-opening of two border crossings into Syria that had previously allowed for the delivery of humanitarian aid into the war-torn country.

Yarubiyah, which sits astride Iraq’s Highway 1, on the border between Iraq and Syria, is one of the two crossings now blocked. It was used to move supplies into northeast Syria, outside of regime control, and run by the Kurdish-led self-administration.

Last December, however, Russia, backed by China, used its veto in the Security Council to block the annual renewal of such operations, closing a border crossing from Jordan into southern Syria as well, and leaving only two crossings between Turkey and Syria for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Although the four Congressmen urged the administration to seek a reversal of the UN decision, they also proposed that if it is not possible, working with allies which share the US perspective, Washington should find other ways to support Syria’s hard-pressed population.

Letter to Pompeo

The two committees supervise the work of the State Department, and Senators James Risch (R, Idaho) and Robert Menendez (D, New Jersey), along with Representatives Eliot Engel (D, New York) and Michael McCaul (R, Texas), voiced their call for US action in a letter sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday.

“We write to express grave concern regarding the prolonged humanitarian crisis in Syria,” their letter began, as they urged Pompeo “to intensify diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to fully restore cross-border humanitarian operations.”

“First and foremost, the closure of the Yarubiyah border crossing between Iraq and northeast Syria has hindered the overall humanitarian response and disrupted the UN’s ability to deliver specialized medical equipment” to combat COVID-19, they wrote.

“It is vital that the United States use its voice, vote, and influence on the UN Security Council to counter Chinese and Russian obstructionism and fully restore cross-border humanitarian assistance,” the letter continued.

The Congressmen had three recommendations, beginning: “Push for the re-opening of the Yarubiyah border crossing for at least one year,” as well as “advocate for additional border crossings” and “protect the UN’s ability to fund NGOs operating through the cross-border approach.”

Since any effort to reverse the Security Council decision, which would, above all, require Russia’s cooperation, might well fail, “contingency plans” are necessary.

“To that end, we further recommend that you work with other like-minded countries to identify more multilateral opportunities to directly fund NGOS, and similarly push all UN agencies to find ways to continue their financial support to the Syrian people,” they wrote.

Congressmen long friendly to the Kurds

All four signatories to the letter have a substantial record of support for Syria’s Kurds. In January 2019, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James Risch, and the Committee’s top Democrat, Robert Menendez, as well as the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, all joined in publicly voicing their opposition to President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from Syria.

That decision was soon modified, with US forces remaining in northeast Syria to protect the oilfields there. That allowed, to a significant extent, the situation in northeast Syria to continue, as it had been.

Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, subsequently told Kurdistan 24, “I think that the United States needs to stand by our friends and allies, which are the Kurds” and a “precipitous” departure of US troops from Syria “would put many of them in jeopardy.”

The year before, Engel told Kurdistan 24 that he believed the Kurds should have their own state.

“Personally,” just speaking for myself, I “think the Kurds are entitled to a country, a nation of their own,” he said. “If there are peoples around the world that are entitled to have their own country, why not the Kurds?”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany