The UN Security Council voted Tuesday (December 19th) to renew aid to Syria's opposition-held areas, extending for one year cross-border deliveries of humanitarian aid to these areas, AFP reported.

Since 2014, UN aid convoys have crossed the border from Turkey and Jordan -- without the approval of the Syrian government -- and are now delivering food to one million Syrians per month, on average.

Russia, China and Bolivia abstained from voting.

Russia last month said it was seeking changes to the UN resolution authorizing the cross-border aid operation, arguing that the shipments were not sufficiently monitored and that they undermined Syria's sovereignty.

The UN maintains that the cross-border deliveries are a lifeline to Syrians living in opposition-held territory because the government in Damascus has heavily restricted aid shipments to those areas.

More than 13 million people need humanitarian aid in Syria, now in its seventh year of war.

A draft resolution seen by AFP would allow convoys to cross into Syria until January 10th, 2019 and request that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres recommend ways to strengthen monitoring.

The draft resolution expresses "grave alarm" at the dire situation in the besieged opposition-held area of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, which has come under fierce bombardment by government forces.