This is all about saving innocent lives and relieving the burden on Syria's neighboring countries, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday's United Nations resolution on Syria.
Following the unanimous adoption by the U.N. Security Council on Saturday of a resolution on cross-border humanitarian assistance and an end to shelling and aerial bombardments in Syria, the international community and the United Nations have set their sights on the implementations of this resolution.
According to the resolution, reached after a 2-month negotiation process, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is to report to the Council in 30 days on its implementation, so that further steps can be taken in the case of non-compliance.
- Ban's report will be a key determining factor
“This resolution should not have been necessary, humanitarian assistance is not something to be negotiated...it is something to be allowed by the virtue of international law,” Ban said in an address to the council immediately after its adoption.
He added that this resolution highlights the urgent need to end the conflict, as 200,000 people are under siege in government-controlled areas and 45,000 in opposition-controlled areas.
The resolution demands "that all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, promptly allow rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for U.N. humanitarian agencies ... including across conflict lines and across borders."
In case Ban's report fails to show that sieges of populated areas have been lifted, unhindered humanitarian access is allowed, foreign fighters have withdrawn, and, "all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment" are ceased, according to the resolution, the Council will need to take ‘further steps’, as stated in the resolution.
"Adopting this resolution is the easy part. Now we must remain focused on implementation. No more broken promises, delays or false concessions," US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power tweeted right after the Syrian resolution was passed on Saturday.
Unless the demands of the Council are met, and the chemical weapons stocks are removed from Syria by July 30, the U.S. could increase the pressure on the Syria regime.
- A significant step for U.S. administration
The U.S. administration welcomed the adoption of the resolution.
"This is a resolution of concrete steps to answer the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement, calling it a possible "hinge-point in the tortured three years of a Syria crisis bereft of hope."
"This overdue resolution, if fully implemented, will ensure humanitarian aid reaches people in Syria whose very lives depend on it," he said. "This is all about saving innocent lives and relieving the burden on Syria's neighboring countries."
Although the U.S. administration hails the passage of the resolution, what matters most is how effective it is going to be implemented.
"Resolutions demanding access mean little without full implementation," Kerry said. "The test is whether the words of the Security Council are matched with the life-saving actions the Syrian people so desperately and urgently need."
According to UN data, over 100,000 people have died in Syria in the last three years, and more than two and a half million people have fled to neighboring countries.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, 9.3 million people are in dire need of humanitarian help.
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