Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad discussed with the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya and the accompanying delegation the role of the United Nations in the humanitarian response to the situation in Syria and the activities carried out by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) and the international organizations active in humanitarian field and various aspects of the humanitarian efforts of the United Nations and its agencies in Syria.
Minister Mikdad condemned Western countries’ politicizationof humanitarian aid by in pursuit of political goals, and stressed the importance of adhering to the principles of humanitarian work in Syria and commitment to neutrality and independence, which contributes to securing basic services and delivering aid to its actual beneficiaries from inside Syria within the framework of full respect for Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions.
Mikdad explained the inhumane effects of the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States and its Western allies on the Syrian people and stressed the need for the United Nations to exert its efforts to put an end to these measures that contradict with the Charter of the United Nations and International Law as It also affects the performance of the United Nations’ humanitarian tasks in Syria.
Mikdad said that these measures are not imposed only against the Syrian government’s efforts to secure medicines, medical equipment, water and basic services, but are also against the Syrian people, whose suffering has increased as a result of these immoral policies which contradict International Law and the Charter of the United Nations.
Msuya said that she is “keen to secure the necessary funding for humanitarian work in Syria, and that Syria is “among the top priorities of humanitarian work for the United Nations”. and hailed the Syrian government for the facilities provided to accomplish the work of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“I am looking forward to improve work mechanisms that lead to strengthening cooperation and coordination in all of these fields” she added.
She indicated that her visit to Syria “comes within the framework of her keenness to closely review the relief and response efforts undertaken by the United Nations and to reach conclusions based on facts with the aim of developing a realistic vision of the needs of the Syrian people”.
Msuya affirmed her readiness to discuss the difficulties facing the work of humanitarian organizations in Syria with the Syrian government in order to reach a common vision to overcome the obstacles that hinder humanitarian work in Syria and distance it from political considerations.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)