The United Nations says the Syrian government has agreed to open two more border crossings to help bring aid into the country devastated by last week’s deadly earthquakes.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told JEE News: “It will make a big difference. Now we are only using one crossing.”
The earthquakes in neighboring Turkey have killed nearly 40,000 people in both countries.
Many Syrians are angry at the lack of aid to their war-torn country.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government has blamed difficulties in rescue efforts on the impact of Western sanctions on the country.
But international aid groups say the main obstacles are the Assad regime’s mismanagement and refusal to engage with all sectors of the country.
More than 5,700 people have been killed since the February 6 earthquake in Syria.
The death toll in Turkey has exceeded 31,000.
Aid organizations have warned that more than a million people have been displaced in Turkey and that the number could be much higher in Syria.
Rescue teams in both countries are now winding down relief operations in the wider area, as chances of finding more survivors fade.
The United Nations announced two new border crossings at Bab al-Salam and al-Ra’i on the Turkish border after high-level talks with President Assad in Damascus on Monday.
It said the crossings into rebel-held northwestern Syria would remain open for an initial period of three months.
“Very soon we will use the other two crossings,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for Mr Guterres, told JEE News.
“We hope that the contract will last as long as we need to use it. We will start using it as soon as possible and I don’t want to make any assumptions, I just want to believe that people are political. They will. Wherever they stand in this dispute, on one side.”
He did not give further details on when the two crossings would open.
And Mr Dujarric defended the delay in waiting for permission to open the Syrian crossing.
“It is our understanding that other aid organizations that are not associated with the United Nations are using these border crossings. We have to work within certain limits, that is the nature of the United Nations.”
President Assad has not publicly commented on the matter.
In the first few days after the earthquake, some supplies reached Syrian government-controlled areas, mainly from friendly countries such as Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
But rebel-held areas in Syria’s devastated northwest are virtually cut off.
This is because international humanitarian aid can only reach these parts from Turkey or through areas controlled by the Syrian government.
