The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Wednesday implored the body's Security Council to renew a mandate allowing aid to pass through a vital border crossing into the war-torn country, stressing that humanitarian needs are only growing, leaving civilians in a state of desperation.

In his briefing, special envoy Geir Pedersen underlined that the mandate has been "absolutely essential to bringing life-saving, and life-sustaining, humanitarian assistance to all parts of Syria during the past extremely difficult year for the Syrian people"

In reference to the tensions due to the ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine, Pedersen added: "At a time of global turmoil, the Council’s unity on humanitarian issues in Syria would also signal that the main stakeholders in this conflict can firewall key aspects of the Syria issue from their differences elsewhere in the world, and cooperate."

Pedersen also urged the community not to forget about the Syrian crisis. "Find unity on Syria. Help the Syrians begin to emerge from this tragic conflict."

"Let’s also not forget the acute economic crisis in Syria, resulting from more than a decade of war and conflict, corruption, mismanagement, the Lebanese financial crisis, COVID, sanctions and now the war in Ukraine," Pedersen said, adding that earlier this month, the World Bank reported that Syrian economic activity halved in size between 2010 and 2019.

"And we know for sure that the situation has not improved since then. The Bank warned that this economic crisis may lead to increased social unrest in Syria," he warned.

Last week, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said that more than 90% of people in the northwest of Syria need life-saving aid and that he urged the Security Council to maintain consensus on allowing cross-border humanitarian operations for an additional 12 months.

"We cannot give up on the people of Syria."

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s Idlib province. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021.

Observers say Russia is using the threat of closure of the aid entry point as a bargaining chip in the face of punishing European Union and U.S. sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has argued aid can instead transit via regime-controlled parts of the country across conflict lines.

But aid groups have been reluctant to shift their massive operations to go through areas held by the regime of Bashar Assad, itself subject to sanctions.

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing last year bound for the Idlib region, the last opposition bastion in Syria and home to around 3 million people.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border between northern Syria and southern Turkey is the only one through which U.N. relief can be brought into the opposition-held Idlib region without navigating areas controlled by the Syrian regime.

On the other side, Pedersen reiterated the need to find a political solution to end the civil war in the country.

"A political settlement of the conflict is the only sustainable way to end the suffering of the Syrian people," he said.

"To focus on a political way forward, it is vital that tensions and dangers of military escalation are contained. We are seeing ongoing and even increasing violence, in a number of flashpoints," Pedersen added, underlining that directing attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law.

He reiterated his call for a nationwide cease-fire, a cooperative approach to countering listed terrorist groups and to focus on supporting the political process.