In July, the Syrian Association for Citizens' Dignity and major Syrian civil society organizations came together to warn against the calamitous consequences of capitulating to Russia's blackmail at the UNSC should it lead to the complete cessation of cross-border aid, leaving more than three million Syrians in dire humanitarian need. 

The legal basis for the UN to continue delivering cross-border humanitarian aid exists even if the UNSC withholds its approval. We called on the United Nations and the key governments to ensure that millions of civilians, already categorized by the UN as in 'catastrophic need' of humanitarian assistance, are not sacrificed on the false basis that a Russian veto ties the UN's hands. 

At the time when the United Nations Security Council was voting on the extension of the Resolution 2165 for six more months, which Russia has threatened to veto and leave more than three million Syrians, (mostly displaced from elsewhere in Syria and mostly children) without the lifeline of cross border humanitarian aid, the conversation surrounding this humanitarian crisis has been entirely focused on appealing to Russia's humanitarian instincts, expecting that the illustrations of the devastating impact on Syrian lives of its action in the UNSC will somehow make Vladimir Putin change his mind and allow for aid to continue flowing into Idlib. 

The discussions surrounding this humanitarian crisis have been entirely focused on appealing to Russia's humanitarian instincts, expecting that the illustrations of the devastating impact on Syrian lives of its action in the UNSC will somehow make Vladimir Putin change his mind and allow for aid to continue flowing into Idlib.  

In a conversation with Refik Hodzic, Rebecca Barber, an Australian scholar of international law, discussed the sources of the assumption that the UNSC must approve cross-border aid to Idlib and alternative approaches that could end Russia's chokehold threatening more than 3 million people with starvation. 

While the Security Council voted to extend cross-border aid for six months, thereby proving its succumb to the blackmail of the Russian veto, Rudaina Al-Khazam, Program Director of the Syrian Association for Citizens' Dignity, warned: "Russia has made it clear to the whole world, through its crimes in Syria and Ukraine, that it is an aggressor that starves, kills and displaces civilians."