Tuekey/Syria EarthquakeÂ
By iur Reporter
The death toll from the catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has climbed over 35,000 as UN aid officials push for more aid access to rebel-controlled north-western Syria, where only one crossing from Turkey is open.
As search and rescue teams began winding down their work on Monday amid diminishing prospects of recovering people alive from the rubble, the focus turned to the humanitarian situation in Syria where, according to some estimates, millions of people are homeless through a combination of the earthquake and the long-running civil war.
There has long been pressure to open other crossings to reach Idlib, but such moves have been vetoed by Russia and China who claim it undermines the sovereignty of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, was urging the security council to authorise the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria, but it was unclear whether that would overcome past objections.
Before a security council meeting on the crisis, however, diplomats said no draft resolution had yet been circulated.
Further complicating the issue since the earthquake has been the refusal of the hardline Hayat al-Tahjr al-Sham group to receive aid sent via Damascus, despite warnings that survivors living outdoors in winter conditions are facing a secondary catastrophe.
Officials and medics said on Monday that 31,643 people had died in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria from the 7.8-magnitude tremor a week ago, bringing the confirmed total to 35,224.
