The United Nations welcomed President Bashar al-Assad's decision on Monday to open "the two crossing points of Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra'ee from Türkiye to north-west Syria for an initial period of three months to allow for the timely delivery of humanitarian aid."

"Opening these crossing points -- along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs -- will allow more aid to go in, faster," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit rebel-held areas in northern and northwestern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition groups and the Syrian government.

Starting last Thursday, the UN was able to get the first aid convoy into Syria from Turkey since the earthquake struck, through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. Since then, additional UN aid convoys entered via the same border crossing.