In an unprecedented move, the United Nations has begun exploring the process of opening offices in northwestern Syria, after nine years of working remotely through local partners. This step, which humanitarian organizations in Syria have been hoping for for years, comes at a time when trust in U.N. agencies in Syria is at an all-time low.
Questions are being asked about the goals and timing of the proposal, given the U.N.’s politicized response to February’s devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake, and its aid failures in northwest Syria.
The question of whether the new U.N. offices in northwest Syria, an opposition-held region, will be run from Damascus or Gaziantep in southern Turkey is also critical given the controversial history of U.N. involvement in the country.