International humanitarian assistance to millions of displaced and destitute Syrians was threatened with imminent shutdown after Russia and China on Friday vetoed a last-minute U.N. Security Council resolution to extend a six-month agreement allowing aid flows into northwest Syria that was due to expire at midnight.
One of the world’s largest humanitarian operations, the cross-border shipments of food and medical supplies assist at least 3 million Syrians, the majority of them women and children. Most have fled from other parts of Syria into the country’s northwest corner, the last major redoubt that has not fallen to the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, and his Russian and Iranian allies, during the nine-year civil war.