U.N. Proposal Would Allow Cross-Border Aid Into Syria
The AP reports that a new U.N. proposal would allow for cross-border aid into Syria, making it possible for international humanitarian groups to reach civilians in hard-to-reach areas with medical and food aid. Currently, all U.N. aid must go through Damascus, a practice which has been repeatedly denounced by humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.
“Australia, Luxembourg, and Jordan are planning to circulate a new U.N. Security Council resolution that diplomats say would authorize the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria through four border crossings without approval from President Bashar Assad’s government,” the wire says.
“Australia’s U.N. Ambassador Gary Quinlan told reporters after a council briefing Thursday on the humanitarian crisis that 90 percent of aid currently ‘goes to government-held areas,’ and Syrians in opposition-controlled zones aren’t getting food and medicine.”
“Diplomats familiar with the draft said it is under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which means it could be enforced militarily. It would authorize humanitarian access at two crossings from Turkey, one in Jordan and one from Iraq helping more than 2 million people who have not received aid.”
Amid War, Preparing for an Election Assad is Sure to Win
The Washington Post reports from Damascus, where preparations are underway for a June 3 presidential election that it widely expected to go to the incumbent, Bashar al-Assad.
“Shoppers milled under a huge poster of the president in the Syrian capital’s ancient central market, its bustling streets newly crisscrossed with miniature flags ahead of an election,” writes Loveday Morris. “A few yards away in the majestic central Umayyad Mosque, where bands of protesters once chanted for freedom, the tone at Friday prayers was triumphant.”
She says that “Much of the world has written off Syria’s upcoming presidential election as a parody. But the government is steaming toward the vote with defiance, portraying it as a cornerstone of a Syrian solution for a war it thinks has swung decisively in its favor. Assad will inevitably defeat his two little-known rivals to win a third seven-year term — a victory those who have fought him view as the end of hope for a negotiated solution to the conflict.”
Anas Joudeh, vice president of Building the Syrian State, an internal opposition party boycotting the vote, tells the paper that “The opposition has failed, inside and out.”
Foreign Jihadis Fighting in Syria Increasingly Pose Risk in West
The New York Times reports from London on the aftermath of a Sunday suicide bombing by a U.S.-born jihadi, which has raised officials’ concerns that Western jihadists, having received training in Syria, will return home to carry out terrorist attacks. Thus far, more than 3,000 Americans and Europeans have fought in Syria.
“Two years ago, a young man who now calls himself Abu Muhajir slipped into Syria with a few friends and $80,000, forsaking what he said was a job as a high school science teacher in North America to wage jihad.
“In a conversation conducted by text message in recent weeks, he said he was raised in a religious family, studied at a madrasa on Sundays and had no non-Muslim friends growing up. And he suggested that Western governments could indeed have cause to be worried that the foreign jihadis in Syria might someday return home to carry out attacks.”
“Attacks occurring on the soil of Middle Eastern countries,” he tells the paper. “We can only expect a response. Americans are still in Afghanistan.”
Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team
Reuters: Al Qaeda Renegade Group Kills 15 Kurds in Northern Syria Guardian: Syria Aid Efforts Have Largely Failed, Say Charities AP: Syrian Activists Detail 2014 Deaths by Barrel Bombs