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Russia and the US described Friday’s unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council as an important moment
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The Security Council mandate for the aid operation, begun in 2014 at four points, was due to expire on Saturday
The UN Security Council on Friday extended a cross-border aid operation into Syria from Turkey following a deal between Russia and the United States to ensure humanitarian help to millions of trapped Syrians.
“Parents can sleep tonight knowing that for the next 12 months their children will be fed. The humanitarian agreement we’ve reached here will literally save lives,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Russia and the United States, set aside their differences to strike the deal and described Friday’s unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council as an important moment, Reuters reported.
“We hope that it might be a turning point that is indeed in line with what Putin and Biden discussed in Geneva,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters after the vote. “It demonstrates that we can cooperate when there is a need and when there is a will as well.”
Thomas-Greenfield told reporter that the deal showed “what we can do with the Russians if we work with them diplomatically on common goals.”
“I look forward to looking for other opportunities to work with the Russians on issues of common interest,” he added.
The Security Council mandate for the aid operation, begun in 2014 at four points, was due to expire on Saturday. Last year the operation was reduced to one point from Turkey into a rebel-held area in Syria, due to Russian and Chinese opposition.