By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The&nbsp;United Nations raised&nbsp;concerns&nbsp;on Friday with a letter&nbsp;from&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;that allows it to resume using a shuttered border crossing to deliver&nbsp;aid&nbsp;to northwest&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;from&nbsp;Turkey&nbsp;after U.N. Security Council approval of that&nbsp;route&nbsp;expired on Monday.
In a note to the Security Council, seen by Reuters, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) took issue with "two&nbsp;unacceptable conditions" in the letter sent by&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;on Thursday outlining its approval of the U.N. operation.
However, it did say that the "Syrian Government's permission can be a basis for the&nbsp;United Nations to lawfully conduct cross-border humanitarian operations via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing for the specified duration."
The&nbsp;United Nations has not used the Bab al-Hawa crossing since the Security Council authorization expired on Monday. Council authorization was needed because the&nbsp;Syrian government did not previously agree to the U.N. operation, which has been delivering&nbsp;aid&nbsp;to millions in northwest&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;since 2014.
Syria&nbsp;gave its approval on Thursday for the U.N. to use Bab al-Hawa for another six months, but with several conditions.
"First, the&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;Government has stressed that the&nbsp;United Nations should not communicate with entities designated as 'terrorist'," OCHA wrote. "The&nbsp;United Nations and its implementing partners must continue to engage with relevant state and non-state parties as operationally necessary."
It said&nbsp;such engagement is "indispensable for gaining safe and timely access to civilians in need and is consistent with international humanitarian law."
OCHA also said&nbsp;a&nbsp;Syrian government demand that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the&nbsp;Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) supervise and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian&nbsp;aid&nbsp;in northwest&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;was "neither consistent with the independence of the&nbsp;United Nations nor practical, as the ICRC and SARC are not present" in that area.
'COOPERATION AND COORDINATION'
Syria&nbsp;had also spelled out in its letter that U.N.&nbsp;aid&nbsp;deliveries would have to be "in full cooperation and coordination with the&nbsp;Syrian Government."
"The&nbsp;United Nations will need to engage to clarify any additional modalities for the delivery of humanitarian&nbsp;aid&nbsp;in north-west&nbsp;Syria," OCHA wrote.
"Any such modalities must not infringe on the impartiality (based on needs alone), neutrality, and independence of the&nbsp;United Nations' humanitarian operations," it said.
Syrians who fled President Bashar al-Assad's rule fear he may soon be able to choke off badly needed&nbsp;aid&nbsp;as Damascus acts to establish sway&nbsp;over&nbsp;U.N. assistance into the rebel-held northwest, the last major bastion of the&nbsp;Syrian opposition.
The 15-member Security Council failed to reach an agreement on Tuesday to renew the mandate for the operation after Russia vetoed a proposed nine-month extension. Russia then failed in its own bid for the council the adopt a six-month renewal.
"We had pre-positioned a lot of material in the area (northwest&nbsp;Syria) before the deadline. So we do have humanitarian&nbsp;aid&nbsp;in place, but obviously we want to get things going as quickly as we can," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said&nbsp;earlier on Friday.
A violent crackdown by Assad on peaceful pro-democracy protesters in 2011 led to a civil war, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington supporting the opposition. Millions of people fled&nbsp;Syria&nbsp;with millions more internally displaced. Fighting has since abated with Assad back in control of most of&nbsp;Syria.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Josie Kao and Diane Craft)

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