The Syrian Coalition’s Department of Foreign Relations met with Niklas Kebbon, Special Representative of the Swedish Foreign Ministry for the Syria Crisis to discuss the dire humanitarian situation of the people being displaced from eastern Ghouta. Both sides also discussed the uncertain future surrounding residents of the town of Douma and the latest developments in the recently liberated Afrin area.
Head of the Department of Foreign Relations, Abdul Ahad Steifo, said that the mass forced displacement taking place in eastern Ghouta must not go unpunished. He said this act constituted a war crime through which the Assad regime seeks to bring about a demographic change just as it already did in many areas across Syria.
Steifo noted that the United Nations and all its member states have an obligation to ensure protection for the remaining population in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, namely in the town of Douma as well as to put an end to the war crimes against civilians.
Steifo stressed that the Coalition is working on enabling all residents of Afrin to return to their towns and villages and participate in the management of their affairs. He noted that the Syrian Coalition has already formed a working group for this purpose. The group began its meetings in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Tuesday in the presence of the Coalition of President Abdul Rahman Mustafa.
For his part, Kebbon said that the European Union is working to deliver humanitarian aid via the United Nations to civilians who are being displaced from eastern Ghouta. He stressed the need to implement international resolutions demanding ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Syrian civil defense in Rural Damascus on Tuesday said that the ongoing onslaught on eastern Ghouta has claimed the lives of at least 1,433 civilians. It pointed out that regime forces, Iranian militias, and Russian forces are using various types of weapons, including internationally prohibited ones. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
