Washington Post: The U.N. says Syrians can keep getting international aid from Turkey — for now. Here’s what’s at stake.

A man and a child walk through the rubble of a destroyed building.

Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images

On July 9, the U.N. Security Council voted to renew the mandate allowing cross-border humanitarian aid operations into Syria. The 2014 resolution had allowed international aid agencies to send supplies into Syria from neighboring countries, without the Syrian government’s permission.

Since the resolution was passed, the Syrian government has recaptured territory. Russia and China, Syria’s allies on the Security Council, have challenged the cross-border operations as infringing on state sovereignty. Only one border crossing from Turkey remains active.

Western governments and international organizations have spent months arguing that millions of civilians in northern Syria rely on cross-border aid simply to survive. The Syrian government has a record of obstructing international organizations in Damascus from delivering aid across front lines. Ending cross-border aid would endanger the well-being of civilians in rebel-held areas.

But closing the last remaining border crossing would also threaten Syrian organizations that deliver aid, as my research has documented.