DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reaffirmed his commitment to providing humanitarian aid to the millions of people impacted by the devastating earthquake and aftershock in northwestern Syria last week.
Speaking to the visiting President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, and her accompanying delegation in Damascus, Assad emphasized the need for reconstruction of critical infrastructure such as health and communications, which directly impact the living conditions of ordinary people.
He highlighted the need for the reconstruction of vital infrastructure and sectors, such as health and communications, when dealing with the current disaster in Syria, saying they directly affect the humanitarian and living conditions of ordinary people.
Egger, for her part, said the ICRC is seeking to provide Syrians with basic commodities and necessary services so that quake victims could surmount the difficulties.
The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 has crossed 41,000. The Syrian government and the UN have reported more than 5,800 deaths in Syria, while Turkish authorities say 35,418 people have been killed in the country.
China called for the immediate lifting of unilateral sanctions on Syria in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
Speaking at a meeting on children and armed conflict at the UN Security Council on Monday, Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations said it was a “harsh reality” that unilateral sanctions were seriously damaging the economic foundation and development of affected countries and depriving many children of their fundamental rights.
The envoy said “illegal unilateral sanctions” on Syria caused a serious shortage of rescue equipment, and expressed concern that children trapped under the rubble might not be rescued in time.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s foreign minister met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, vowing to continue delivering earthquake aid and work to find a political solution to the 12-year foreign-backed conflict in Syria, Syrian state media reported.
Ayman Safadi’s visit to the earthquake-hit country makes him the first Jordanian official to do so since the onset of the war in 2011. It marks a new thaw in relations between the two countries.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II had called Assad last week to express Amman’s willingness to send humanitarian aid.
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates pledged an additional $50 million in assistance to quake-hit Syria, the official WAM news agency said, bringing the total value of pledges to more than $100 million.