Secretary-General of the Syrian Coalition, Nazir al-Hakim, stressed the need to provide international support and protection to civilians in northern Syria and to prevent any military attacks by the Assad regime and its allies against civilians and vital civilian facilities there.
Hakim was speaking at a teleconference with Hama Provincial Council. In addition to Hakim, the teleconference brought together members of the political committee Hawass Khalil and Abdul Majid Barakat as well as head of the Council Nafie Barazi and members Najib Rahmoun, Abu Faisal Hamawi, Mohammed Amin, Alaa Khalil, Ahmed Sabah, Badie Al-Omar, and Abu Usama Qablan.
Hakim stressed the need to improve the performance of the service institutions and its connection with the ministries of the Syrian Interim Government in order to meet the needs of the forcibly displaced people in northern Syria and ease their suffering. “We need to work together to help the displaced people safely and honorably return to their homes and areas.”
Hakim described the presence of Turkish observation points in northern Syria as “reassuring,” adding that the presence of these points can help improve the work of service institutions and complete the projects that were launched by local councils and the Syrian Interim Government. However, Hakim did not rule out military escalation by the regime and its allies in the north.
For his part, Barazi pointed out that the Council cannot cope with the needs of the huge wave of displaced people who arrived in northern rural Hama due to the insufficient resources. He pointed out that shelling by the Assad regime forces on many towns and villages in the area, albeit intermittent, has further increased the suffering of the local population and the displaced people, especially as the shelling is targeting vital civilian centers.
Towns and villages in northern and northwestern rural Hama have been subjected to heavy shelling since Monday’s night. Rocket and artillery shelling killed a three-year-old girl and wounded her brother and mother in the town of Latamina on Monday. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
