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© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS
Permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia urged on Wednesday the leadership of the world organization to check the data on the volumes of humanitarian aid delivered to Syrians in coordination with Damascus. Speaking at a meeting of the Security Council, he drew attention to the fact that UN officials give absolutely different figures on it.
During the meeting, the Deputy Secretary-General of the world organization for humanitarian Affairs mark Lowcock said that since the beginning of August, the UN was able to conduct convoys with aid for 280 thousand of the 1.2 million that was requested for access from the Syrian authorities. These figures are referred to in his speech, the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, who criticized the proposal of the Russian Federation about the termination of deliveries of aid to areas of Syria with Turkey and Jordan with the expansion of humanitarian access inside the country. “It would be a mistake” — says the diplomat. According to her, a result, more than 1 million people in Syria will be left without vital assistance.
Taking the reply, nebesa has offered to “deal with statistics”. “I think it’s one of the challenges you have to deal with new Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. I remember the last time we discussed the issue of Syria, including humanitarian access, in room [closed] consultations of the Security Council, the representative of OCHA [office for the coordination of humanitarian Affairs] has given us hard data about how many people are receiving humanitarian assistance thanks to the assistance of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic. And there it was a question not about one hundred thousand people, there it was, if I’m not mistaken, about 5 million who received assistance thanks to the cooperation of OCHA with the Syrian government,” — said the diplomat.
“I want us to understand these figures. I would like to ask Mr. Lococo to address this issue. Let’s “let’s synchronize our watches,” — said the Ambassador. Deputy Secretary General of the UN and the US Ambassador left the remark unanswered.
The number of besieged areas decreased
According to the UN, six and a half years of armed conflict in Syria has made refugees of more than 6.3 million people and left 13.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance. As reported in Wednesday’s Lowcock, more than 1 million people in the country survive thanks to the care that is delivered by trucks through the front lines, but many others are unable to obtain food and essential commodities due to the hostilities.
According to him, after breaking the siege of the city of Deir ez-Zor besieged Syrian list of districts was reduced to ten in the territory of which there are about 420 thousand people. Locock claimed that 95% of them are surrounded by government forces.
“Syria continues to face profound and complex challenges, and the Syrian people remain hostage to violence, which did not manage to stop it,” he concluded. Deputy UN Secretary General, who took office on 1 September, has promised “open and transparent to work with all parties” in finding ways out of the humanitarian crisis in the country.