Syria's president has agreed to temporarily allow earthquake aid to flow through two new border crossings from Turkey into rebel-held areas of northern Syria, the UN says.
Access to rebel-held areas in northern Syria is severely limited due to the country's 12-year civil war. Throughout the war, Assad has opposed the opening of any Turkey-Syria crossings for humanitarian aid, forcing the UN Security Council toIt took several days before the first earthquake aid convoy passed through that crossing due to damaged roads. The UN Security Council met earlier Monday behind closed doors to discuss humanitarian aid for the region.
The two new crossings of Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra'ee will initially be opened for three months and will be limited to humanitarian aid, the UN said.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing Monday that if the Assad "regime is serious about this, and if the regime is willing to put those words into action, that would be a good thing.”Even before the earthquake, more than 4 million people — the majority of whom are women and children — in northwest Syria depended on some kind of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN humanitarian office .
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