Syria warns UN against cross-border aid delivery resolution

Syria has warned the United Nations Security Council against a draft resolution that would authorize cross-border aid delivery.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the 15-member Security Council, Damascus said that it would consider any unauthorized cross-border delivery of aid as an “attack” on its territorial integrity.

The letter was signed by several dozen Syrian and Arab lawyers protesting against the draft resolution.

The lawyers said that the sole purpose of the initiative is to use the UN auspices for the delivery of logistical backing to terrorists operating in the country.

“Importing aid in coordination with terrorist organizations and without consultation with the Syrian state would amount to an attack on the Syrian state,” the letter stated.

“Not only would it violate the (United Nations) charter, it would use the charter as a pretext for aggression,” the letter added.

The protest letter came as the Western powers at the Security Council are working on a draft resolution that would guarantee the enforced delivery of aid into Syria through four border crossings without approval from the Syrian government. Currently, all UN aid goes through Damascus.

However, Russia said recently that Syria has agreed to open four border crossings named in the draft text under a “far-reaching formula.”

The United Nations says some 9.3 million people in Syria need help, of which about 4.7 million are in hard-to-reach areas. Nearly three million people have also fled the conflict in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011.