The Syrian government has agreed to open two more border crossings to allow humanitarian aid shipments into the war-torn and earthquake-ravaged country, the BBC reports.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that this would completely change the situation.
The earthquakes, with epicenters in Syria’s neighboring country Turkey, have already claimed almost 40 thousand lives. More than 31,000 people have died in Turkey, and Syria reports more than 5,700 dead.
Many Syrians are angry at the lack of aid, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the difficulty in adequately carrying out rescue efforts has been caused by Western sanctions against his regime.
Meanwhile, international aid teams say the problem is the Assad government’s disorganized leadership and refusal to cooperate with all areas of the country.
Rescue teams are gradually ending search operations in the vast area affected by the earthquake, as there is virtually no hope of finding survivors a week after the earthquake.
After talks between high-level officials in Damascus, an agreement has been reached that two more border crossing points on the Turkey-Syria border will be opened for UN cargo. Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, told BBC Radio 4 that he hoped for reasonable action by the parties involved to allow the border to be crossed for as long as necessary.
Assad has not publicly commented on the delivery of aid shipments.
In the first days after the earthquake, some aid shipments reached the government-controlled areas of Syria, mainly from its friendly countries – Russia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, the severely affected northwestern regions remained without aid, as the possibilities for international organizations to get there are very limited.
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