Diplomats fear Russia may use Syrian aid as bargaining chip in Ukraine

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WASHINGTON - Only one route remains open for international convoys bringing food, water and other aid to over 1 million Syrians besieged by civil war.

Now, officials warn, Russia might try to shut it down or use it as a bargaining chip with world powers in another war,Diplomats and experts said closing the corridor at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey would almost certainly force thousands of people to flee Syria. That would worsen a refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East that is already considered the world's largest since World War II.

Safadi said Jordan was warily watching to see how Russia would approach the vote. More than 1 million Syrian refugees live in Jordan, he said, and brokering a peace agreement in Syria's 11-year civil war"would definitely need US-Russian agreement". Russia is one of Assad's benefactors in Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, and the aid was largely going to rebel-occupied areas. The route from Bab al-Hawa leads into Syria's northwestern Idlib province, one of the last pockets of rebel-held territory in the country and an area that has become a haven for an extremist organisation linked to al-Qaeda.

"I do not deny that it goes to refugees as well, but the terrorist groups - they benefit from this," he said, adding that the extremists had attacked deliveries. One of the diplomats also predicted Russia would counter accusations that its invasion had violated Ukraine's sovereignty by denouncing the aid convoys as an infringement on Syria's territorial integrity.

 

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