Washington, DC – Representatives Gregory W. Meeks and Michael McCaul, Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement ahead of the United Nations Security Council’s vote on humanitarian access to the Syrian people:

“The UN Security Council is currently considering the vital issue of humanitarian access to the Syrian people. For more than a decade, the Assad regime has waged war on Syrian civilians, leaving more than 13 million people in need of humanitarian aid. We cannot give Assad and Russia a veto over lifesaving humanitarian access to the very people that their regimes maim, torture, and starve. This is a critical test of the UN system and the lives of Syrian children, women, and men hang in the balance. In the strongest possible terms, we urge all Members of the Security Council to support re-opening the Yarubiyah crossing and a 12 month renewal of the Bab Al Hawa crossing to ensure consistent, reliable, humanitarian cross-border access to Syrian civilians when the authorization resolution is put to a vote. Failure to renew these crossings amounts to a death sentence for thousands of Syrians.” 

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