U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that Syria's President Bashar Assad has agreed to open two more border crossings to authorize humanitarian aid for earthquake survivors affected by the recent disaster in Türkiye and northwest Syria.
"Opening these crossing points — along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs — will allow more aid to go in, faster," said Guterres.
The U.N. Security Council held a closed-door meeting on Monday to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes.
U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths arrived in Aleppo on Monday, according to state news agency SANA, amid heavy criticism of delays in earthquake aid.
Griffiths admitted the U.N.'s failure on Sunday. "[The Syrian people] rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived," Griffiths said in a tweet.
Griffiths said on Sunday that he expects the final death toll from the earthquakes in both Türkiye and Syria to exceed 50,000.
