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you're watching bbc news. now it's time for fault line: the un and the quake in syria. screaming. the earthquake strikes. un aid arrives in turkey immediately, but take several days to reach northwest syria. bbc news arabic investigates. un teams are supposed to deploy within 48 hours of a request. in northwest syria, that didn't happen.

what matters in terms of responding to an earthquake is time and what the sort of, the immediacy of the response. and the un just stood there, like, completely paralysed. in this film, we ask, "what took the united nations so long?" to deliver humanitarian aid across an international border, we need either the consent of the government or in the case that we have in syria, a binding security council resolution.

on monday 6th february 00.47am, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 strikes near gaziantep in south—east turkey. across the border in syria, strong tremors are felt. hundreds of buildings collapse. as the hours pass, the scale of the disaster becomes apparent. rescue teams are overwhelmed. in turkey, a major aid effort gets under way. rescue teams from around the world rush to help. in syria, the earthquake hit several cities controlled by the assad government. it also strikes north—west syria, the last pocket

of territory controlled by opposition groups. buildings here have been weakened by years of conflict. this is only one of the buildings... sara kasim is a local journalist who's reported from north—west syria for the past few years. she's been alongside the rescue team since the first moments of the earthquake. this is just one of the buildings after being completely destroyed. and the civil defence members are just trying to save civilians under the rocks. it's quickly clear that this is one of the worst natural disasters of the century. in the government—controlled areas of syria, on the day of the disaster, planes carrying aid arrived from iran and algeria. more soon follows from the uae,

libya, egypt and iraq. but in north—west syria, there's no airport, no international rescue teams and no aid. the un says that in order to save lives, response must begin within the first 72 hours. it's a race against time. ahmad hajji and his five—year—old son were lucky enough to be rescued from the rubble. one of his other sons, abdul rahman, is missing, but ahmad believes he's still alive.

coughing.

it's 7th february 2023. here we are today in one of the neighbourhoods in the countryside of aleppo because of an earthquake which hit north—west syria yesterday. still, people are working and the white helmets, the civil defence members, are working to remove the rocks and to see if there are any victims under. this is one of the buildings. two days ago, people were living here, but now they are victims of the earthquake. shouting. in turkey, president recep tayyip erdogan

addresses the nation. the epicentre was turkey. and immediately the president of that member state of the un put out a request saying this is too big for any one country, we need all the international help we can get. none of that happened in syria. a team from britain is one of the first to arrive. well, we sent it immediately into the region and 77 uk - search and rescue experts, together with the top level| of equipment and their sniffer dogs, arrived in turkey fast. i when natural disasters strike, the united nations plays a vital role in coordinating international relief efforts. the un carries out search and rescue through un dac,

its disaster assessment and coordination system. the wires start buzzing to make sure that we try and get - an assessment team very quickly into wherever the problem lies . so we can try and getj as quickly as possible the right resourcej to the right place. the un also organises emergency medical teams, known as emt, through the world health organization. on 6th february, the world health organization had put out an emt global alert for the turkey earthquake, and they were calling on emt teams to self—identify and put themselves forward for consideration for deployment for turkey. the un was quick to respond to turkey's call for help. across the border in north—west syria, it was a different story.

no—one could send search and rescue teams because north—west syria is not under government control, is not recognised. you can't request intergovernmental help the way the syrian government was able to. the way that turkey was able to. this is the head of the volunteer syrian civil defence group known as the white helmets. un dac teams can deploy anywhere in the world within 12 to 48 hours of a request, usually by a government.

the un humanitarian coordinator in syria was begging the assad regime to give access. to some in north—west syria, it seemed like no—one was listening. during the crucial 72—hour window for rescue, no international search and rescue or emergency medical teams came to north—west syria.

what matters in terms - of responding to an earthquake is time and what the sort of like the immediacy- of the response. and the un just stood there, like, completely paralysed. i the un's headquarters in new york. stephane dujarric is spokesman for the un secretary—general. the way it works is that a national government is responsible for asking for help. right? we have an integrated system where we co—ordinate international rescue teams. but if there are no international search and rescue teams in an area, one can understand that there is really not much coordination of those teams to be done. according to the website, un dac teams can be deployed anywhere in the world at short notice and i'm quoting the website, "within 12 to 48 hours of a request for assistance "from the united nations resident or humanitarian coordinator "or by the affected government". so i'm trying to understand where...

who is responsible for the delay? there was...i mean, i think we're going around... we're going around in circles here. there were a number of un dac teams which were sent to southern turkiye. there was one that moved as soon as we got the visas into syria, into aleppo. we go where we're able to go, we go where there is... for the coordination, where there is international aid to be coordinated. it's day three. the death toll in syria now exceeds 2,500, with nearly 11 million affected by the earthquake. 4 million syrians depend on aid agencies for survival.

but the border crossing, the only entry point for un aid to north—west syria, is reportedly blocked and unusable. took three days for the turkish authorities to reopen the border crossing because, as you well know, this earthquake hit not only, of course, millions of people, but it impacted the humanitarian operation itself, the humanitarian infrastructure that was in place. however, others maintain that the bab al—hawa crossing remained open.

so one thing you said earlier was that turkey took three days to open up the border. can you just elaborate on that? well, i mean, let's give... let's understand the situation. southern turkiye was hit by a devastating earthquake, right? tens of thousands of people died. roads were blocked. i mean, it's not a matter of blame. it's a matter of fact. it took... it took time. to clear the roads. it took time for people, for humanitarian workers, whether turkish workers, international workers,

or others who were there, to actually bring themselves back to a working state. when they had to deal with their own families, they had to deal with their own houses having been collapsed. sara was at bab al—hawa. she witnessed the tragic consequences of the earthquake. the cross—border operation

followed the un's failure to agree with the syrian government on how to get aid to the rebel—held territories. in 2014, the un security council authorised aid to be delivered through four border crossings. however, in 2020, russia used its veto to reduce the number of crossings from four to just one — at bab al—hawa. karsten weiland is a former political consultant for the un. he studied how the syrian regime has politcised humanitarian aid. so, we have a debate in the security council every six months again to discuss the conditions under which the un is allowed to deliver cross—border aid into syria. and that's the occasion where the russian side imposes new conditions on the delivery of humanitarian aid. valerie amos is a former head of the un's office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

i and others have been deeply frustrated about the lack of movement sometimes by the security council over many, many years and decades. we have seen the way that countries have used humanitarian aid as a proxy for a conflict that they're having in a particular country. this should not happen. this should be about people in need. it is supposed to be delivered in a neutral and impartial manner, principled humanitarian aid that is, and not as a condition... you can deliver more humanitarian aid, and in turn, bashar al assad gets more recovery or reconstruction. and so that is trading unequal things. you trade... you start trading humanitarian aid, which is supposed to be

unconditional with things that are not humanitarian. and this is taking place every six months. the un says that like any other organisation, it has to operate within a framework, its charter. the united nations is made up of 193 states who guard their sovereignty jealously. the secretariat had the authority from the security council to deliver aid cross—border. we did. we appealed for more border crossings. in the end, the syrian government gave the permission to use two more crossings. we used that opportunity as quickly as we could. we've delivered about 500 trucks�* worth of aid now since the beginning of the quake. four days after the earthquake, the death toll is still rising and is now 17,000 in total. in north—west syria, many hospitals are now too

badly damaged to operate. time is running out for the rescuers, but still survivors are being found. earthquake aid has yet to reach the opposition—held area, where conditions are now worse than any seen during 12 years of war.

at last, five days after the quake, a convoy of 14 un aid lorries arrives at bab al—hawa. but even then, it wasn't the urgently needed search and rescue equipment. i'm here at the bab al—hawa crossing point... two days later, martin griffiths, the un's head of emergency relief, makes an extraordinary admission. writing on twitter, he says

the un has so far failed the people of north—west syria. "they rightly feel abandoned, looking for international help that hasn't arrived." eminent lawyers, professors, retired judges of the international court ofjustice and former un legal officials, they've all agreed that under international law, the un doesn't need the consent of the syrian government or even a security council resolution to deliver cross—border aid. for us, it is clear, it's been our long—standing position from the secretary... from the secretariat, that in order to deliver humanitarian aid across an international border, we need either the consent of the government or in the case that we have in syria a binding security council resolution. are you saying that what they're saying essentially is wrong? what i'm saying to you is that, you know, we can have academic discussions for weeks, months and years

about international law. there are thousands and thousands of international law experts, all i'm sure many very imminent. our position is that it has not delayed our work. but in that instant, what was delayed was earthquake—related aid equipment. no? and that's what they needed and that's what they didn't get based on the un stance and their interpretation of the law. to blame the law for any hampering of delivery of humanitarian aid from our position is wrong. we operate within a given mandate, and that's the charter of the united nations, international law. the united nations is made up of 193 states, who guard their sovereignty jealously.

it's now three weeks after the earthquake. omar hadji and his son abdel rahman were finally reunited.

the devastation has stripped omar�*s family of everything they'd worked so hard to keep during the years of war. ahmed hadji and abdel rahman are left with the daunting task of starting yet again from scratch. michael walsh, the emergency aid adviser, thinks that if the international community doesn't learn from the crisis

in north—west syria, it will only happen again. the key issue here is that we knew there was going to be a north—west syria years ago when we started talking about the need for a process of deploying emergency medical teams into active conflicts and complex humanitarian emergencies. there has been a north—west syria case. there will be another north—west syria case. we have to learn the lessons that we see on the ground today in north—west syria and find a solution to this problem.

hello. much milder out there for many of you today, even in scotland where we saw quite a chill this morning and the remnants of the overnight snow. temperatures are on the rise, but outbreaks of rain rather than snow to take us through the afternoon. some in central scotland stay dry. brighter in the far north. northern ireland rain at times extending also into the borders with northern england and later on channel islands, south west england. wales will turn increasingly wet and windy, not the temperatures well above where they have been, maybe around 14 celsius in one or two spots. so significantly above where

we should be for the stage in march. tonight, rain at times for most of that will turn to snow on the higher ground of northern scotland later as northerly winds try to dig back. but for most a very, very mild night. six degrees in glasgow, maybe no lower than around ten or ii in southern england. but tomorrow will be a windy day, despite the fact for some it will be mild sunshine and showers for england and wales, especially

this is bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm maryam moshiri and these are the latest headlines. the row over bbc impartiality continues after the sports presenter gary lineker criticised the uk government over its asylum bill. this has been a tough time for the bbc and we care about our audiences and we want to get the right outcome for this. we are working very hard to get that done and i would like to see gary lineker return on air. the bbc�*s football shows look set to be affected for a second day running, after presenters withdraw in support of gary lineker. leaders from the uk, us and australia will meet for talks on defence, including the plan for australia to get us nuclear submarines.