The UN says that approval problems with a hardline group are holding up earthquake aid to Syria.

BEIRUT: A hard-line group is holding up earthquake aid from parts of Syria controlled by the government to parts controlled by the opposition, a UN spokesperson said on Sunday.

Aid workers are having a hard time getting to the northern areas hit by Monday’s earthquake, which killed at least 29,000 people in Turkey and Syria and destroyed large parts of towns and cities. This is made harder by the fighting that has been going on in Syria for nearly 12 years.

Most of the 3,500 deaths in Syria that have been reported so far happened in the northwest, which is mostly held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

In this handout from SANA on February 11, 2023, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his wife, Asma al-Assad, look over rescue efforts at the site of damaged buildings after the earthquake in Jableh, Syria.

— Reuters
In this handout from SANA on February 11, 2023, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his wife, Asma al-Assad, look over rescue efforts at the site of damaged buildings after the earthquake in Jableh, Syria.
— Reuters
The area hasn’t gotten much help because the front lines with the government are closed and there is only one border crossing with Turkey to the north. Last week, the Syrian government said it was ready to send aid to the north.

A Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) source who was not allowed to talk to the media told Reuters that the group would not let shipments come from parts of Syria where the government is in control. Instead, Turkey would send aid.

The source said, “We won’t let the regime use the situation to show that they are helping.”

A spokesperson for the UN’s humanitarian aid office told Reuters, “There are problems with approval” from the group, which the UN and the US both consider to be a terrorist group, but did not give any more details.

A UN spokesperson in Damascus didn’t want to say anything, saying that the UN had nothing to say “keeps working with the right people to get access to the area.

In Iskenderun, Turkey, on February 11, 2023, members of a rescue team work on the site of a collapsed building as they continue to look for survivors after an earthquake that killed many people.

— Reuters
In Iskenderun, Turkey, on February 11, 2023, members of a rescue team work on the site of a collapsed building as they continue to look for survivors after an earthquake that killed many people.
— Reuters
Martin Griffiths, the head of UN aid, said earlier on Sunday that the people of north-east Syria had been let down and “have every right to feel abandoned.””

When asked for a comment, the HTS media office did not respond right away.

Thursday, a group of trucks carrying fuel and other aid from Syria’s northeast, which is run by the Kurds, were sent back from the northwest, which is run by rebels backed by Turkey.

But Turkey said last week that it might be willing to open a direct border crossing with government-held areas in Syria. This comes after Ankara cut diplomatic ties with Damascus more than a decade ago because of the conflict.

In the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria, on February 11, 2023, people from the Syrian National Army, which is backed by Turkey, walk down a street after an earthquake. Reuters
In the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria, on February 11, 2023, people from the Syrian National Army, which is backed by Turkey, walk down a street after an earthquake. Reuters
UN spokesman Jens Laerke told Reuters that the UN also wants to increase cross-border operations by opening two more border crossings between Turkey and opposition-held Syria so that aid can be sent there.

Griffiths, who is in charge of UN aid, is “working the phones very hard” on this diplomatic front, Laerke said. He is talking to everyone to open up more border crossings.

Griffiths will give a report to the UN Security Council on Monday. He hopes to use a “watertight argument” about urgent needs to get Russia, a key ally of Damascus, to change its mind about the cross-border aid operation, which it has always opposed.

Russia has asked for more aid to be sent across the border, but Laerke said, “The cross-border operation is the main show in terms of the amount and frequency of aid.”

Sunday, the European Union’s representative in Syria asked the government in Damascus to work “in good faith” with aid workers to help people who need it.

“It’s important to let aid get to all places where it’s needed without any trouble,” Dan Stoenescu told Reuters.