US says last Turkish aid route into Syria must stay open

The U.S. envoy to the UN said Thursday the sole border crossing to deliver aid into Syria must remain open, amid Russian threats to veto a resolution to protect it.

Syria-ally Russia could block the UN Security Council resolution, which expires on July 10, and observers say it is using it as a bargaining chip in the face of punishing sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. 

The Bab al-Hawa crossing near Turkey's Cilvegozu border post in the south has been the only point of entry for UN aid into Syria for the past two years. 

The US ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday it was imperative the opening stay open. 

"We have to extend this border crossing, we have to continue to provide this assistance," said Thomas-Greenfield from a UN logistics center in Reyhanli, near the Turkey-Syria border. 

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the crossing last year bound for the Idlib region, the last rebel bastion in Syria and home to around three million people live.

"We know that the situation is already dire there, that people are suffering now," Thomas-Greenfield said. 

"It's going to increase the sufferings, it's going to increase the number of people who will displace and possibly even the number of people who may try to cross the border into Turkey." 

She was in Reyhanli to meet with NGO and U.N. agencies' representatives who are working to provide assistance to Syrians. 

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the U.N., said on May 20 that Moscow saw no reason to keep the crossing open, saying it violates Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.