Bab Al-Hawa: US says last Syria aid route from Turkey must remain open

The US envoy to the UN said on Thursday that the sole border crossing to deliver aid into Syria must remain open, amid Russian threats to veto a resolution to protect it.

Syrian regime ally Russia could block the UN Security Council resolution, which expires on 10 July, and observers say it is using it as a bargaining chip in the face of punishing sanctions over Moscow's brutal invasion of Ukraine.

The Bab Al-Hawa crossing near Turkey's Cilvegozu border post in the south has been the only point of entry for UN aid into Syria for the past two years.

The US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday it was imperative the crossing to stay open.

"We have to extend this border crossing, we have to continue to provide this assistance," said Thomas-Greenfield from a UN logistics centre in Reyhanli, near the Turkey-Syria border.

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the crossing last year bound for the Idlib province in Syria's northwest, the last rebel bastion in the country and home to around three million people.

"We know that the situation is already dire there, that people are suffering now," Thomas-Greenfield said.

"It's going to increase the sufferings, it's going to increase the number of people who will displace and possibly even the number of people who may try to cross the border into Turkey."

She was in Reyhanli to meet with NGO and UN agencies' representatives who are working to provide assistance to Syrians.

Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, said on 20 May that Moscow saw no reason to keep the crossing open, saying it violates Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This is despite rebels – and not Moscow's ally, the Syrian regime – having control of the Bab Al-Hawa area.