DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited northwestern Syria on Wednesday, his first trip to the areas since a devastating quake last month, an AFP correspondent reported.
Tedros was the highest-ranking United Nations official to visit the militant-held zones since the February 6 quake.
He entered from neighboring Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa crossing and visited several hospitals and a shelter for those displaced, the correspondent said.
The Bab al-Hawa crossing is located in the Idlib region, which UN officials rarely visit and is controlled by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
In the aftermath of the quake, activists and emergency teams in the northwest decried the UN’s slow response.
The United Nations and Syria have condemned attempts by certain parties to politicize the humanitarian response to the massive earthquake.
Nations must “depoliticize” the humanitarian response for victims of February 6 earthquake in Syria, the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the UN Security Council.
It is not the time “to play politics with crossings across borders or front lines … this is not the time for military action or violence,” Pedersen said by video link.
He made clear that the situation was “unsustainable” and the status quo “totally unacceptable.”
Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bassam al-Sabbagh, also stressed that the Damascus government strongly opposes efforts to politicize humanitarian aid response to quake victims.
“International efforts to address repercussions of the earthquake must now focus on reconstruction of the essential infrastructure and repair of the damage that utilities have suffered,” Sabbagh noted.
He added that Damascus spares no effort to provide relief aid to people in quake-hit areas in northwestern Syria.
“Syria is determined to deliver humanitarian aid to all affected people,” Sabbagh said.
The top Syrian diplomat lamented that restrictions imposed on Syrian hospitals, and international pharmaceutical companies’ refusal to sell medicines and medical equipment have aggravated the burdens of Syria’s health sector.
“The illegal U.S. control over oil and gas reserves in the northeastern part of Syria, and constant smuggling of petroleum out of the country have deprived Syrians of the multi-billion-dollar proceeds from their national assets,” Sabbagh said.