Today we are in front of two brutal crimes by the Assad regime and the Russian occupation: the first of which is the military escalation in al-Zawiya Mountain region and the entirety of Idlib province, namely the aerial bombardment by jet fighters and drones, causing many deaths and injuries among civilians, while the second crime is Russia’s attempts at the UN Security Council to close the humanitarian crossings to the north and limit the introduction of international aid to the areas it occupies.
The fate of millions of internally displaced Syrians cannot be left at the mercy of a brutal occupier and a murderous regime. The free world must assume a clear principled position towards these crimes.
It is imperative to open more crossings in order to facilitate the delivery of aid to those in need as the fate of more than a thousand IDP camps inside Syrian depends on the UN resolutions and the measures that will be taken.
The performance of the international organization is still disappointing as it is yet to correspond with the size of the responsibility. The UN Security Council is required to extend UN Resolution 2139, which allows the delivery of UN aid via all border crossings and conflict lines and through the shortest routes. Measures must be taken to place this aid completely under the management, control and direction of independent parties so as to ensure that it reaches those who deserve it, and prevent the Assad regime, the Russian occupation, and the Iranian militias from seizing UN aid and distributing it to their criminal gangs.
It is no secret that the humanitarian aid in Syria is one of the issues that the Assad regime and its backers are manipulating in order to achieve economic and political gains. We stress the need to completely wrest this issue from the regime’s hands, and keep it away from the framework and circle of manipulation that Russia supervises and provides with political and diplomatic coverage.
In the context of the international approach to aid for Syrian refugees, the World Food Program’s decision to cut aid to thousands of Syrian refugees is shocking and extremely unfortunate in view of the serious consequences that it will have on their live, wellbeing and social and psychological conditions, let alone its negative impact on education and job opportunities.
We call for a reconsideration of the decision as it will undoubtedly have catastrophic consequences for thousands of Syrian households. We also call for taking all necessary measures to ensure that all Syrian refugees in Jordan receive sufficient food, medicine and all other necessary assistance.
The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) calls on international actors and donor states to honor their obligations towards Syrian refugees so as to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in neighboring countries, especially in Jordan. We commend the continuous efforts that the sisterly Kingdom of Jordan is making to protect Syrians fleeing the brutality of the Assad regime and its backers and to alleviate their suffering.
It saddened us as human beings who belong to this humanitarian community that the criminal regime that killed doctors and destroyed hospitals participated in the recent meeting of the Executive Council of the World Health Organization after becoming a member of it.
The deficient procedures and mechanisms being pursued by international organizations, including the World Health Organization, facilitated the criminal regime’s continuation of its bloody war on the Syrian people. As the WHO has recently provided the regime with four-wheel drive trucks, we will never be surprised if we learn that the regime installed machine guns on top of these trucks to use in the killing of Syrians.
International actors need to take serious action that puts all these crises in their proper context, and do what is necessary to impose a political transition in accordance with UN Resolution 2254 as a gateway to solving all crises that threaten the Syrian people at home and abroad.
