Russia in showdown with UN and West over aid to Syria

UNITED NATIONS: Russia previewed a showdown with the United Nations, United States and Western nations Wednesday over the delivery of humanitarian aid to rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey, rejecting their warnings that closing the only border crossing will leave more than 1 million people without desperately needed food and cause people to die because they lack medicine.

Stressing the importance of strengthening Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia insisted that aid can and should be delivered across conflict lines in Syria, and accused the U.N. and the West of doing nothing to promote such deliveries during the past year. Unless Western nations "both in words and deeds prove their commitment to this goal,” he warned that there is no point in speaking about renewing the mandate for the one remaining border crossing from Turkey to northwest Idlib which expires on July 10. "We still have some time before the `D-Day’. Hopefully it will not be wasted,” Nebenzia said.