UN enters Oppn-held Syria from govt territory first time since earthquake

A convoy carrying United Nations aid entered opposition-held Idlib from government-held Syria on Friday, the first such shipment to cross battle lines since a deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria in February.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, announced that an aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies crossed from Aleppo to northwest Syria. The last UN aid shipment to cross battle lines into the northwest was on January 8.

In the wake of the earthquake that struck Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, causing widespread destruction, cross-line aid convoys had been prevented from entering Idlib from government-held areas by the formerly al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which dominates the area.

An administrative arm of the group accused the government of Bashar Assad in a statement at the time of trying to benefit from the aid intended for victims of the earthquake.

In the wake of the earthquake, the delivery of aid to earthquake-affected areas became a political battle, with opponents of Assad and many aid organisations pushing for the UN to send more aid shipments to northern Syria by way of Turkey, while the Syrian government and its ally, Russia, pushed for the aid to be sent via Damascus.

The UN is normally only allowed to deliver aid through a single border crossing from Turkey, at Bab al-Hawa, at the insistence of Russia, which is a permanent member of the Security Council.

After the earthquake, Assad agreed to the opening of two new crossing points from Turkey, at Bab al-Salam and al-Raee on a temporary basis, although in practice, the majority of cross-border aid has continued to come via Bab al-Hawa.

The mandate for cross-border aid deliveries at Bab al-Hawa is up for renewal next month at the UN Security Council.

HTS officials declined to comment on the reasons for their change in stance on aid coming from government-held areas. But Sam Heller, a fellow with the New York-based Century International research centre, said the group's decision may be related to next month's vote.

He said Russia's UN envoy has complained about the lack of cross-line deliveries, and allowing one now may have been intended to encourage Russia to approve the continuation of cross-border aid.

"The cross-border mandate will only be renewed with Russia's consent," he said.

Syria Response Coordination Group, a humanitarian organisation working in northwest Syria, said in a statement that humanitarian convoys have been at the mercy of international political tensions and called for international organisations to find ways to increase the amount of assistance reaching the area.