48 hours after the earthquake that devastated the northwest of the country, Syria formally requested the European Union to activate the civil protection mechanism and send rescue teams to the earthquake-affected areas. “This morning we received a request for ‘help’ from the Syrian government through the EU protection mechanism. We share this request with our member states and encourage them to contribute in-kind assistance as requested.” Management Janez Lenarcic at a press conference.
The announcement closes a debate that broke out yesterday after some humanitarian organizations, such as Italy’s Sant’Egidio, raised the alarm that it was impossible for EU states to send aid to Syria following the sanctions imposed on Damascus more than a decade ago. civil war. Brussels’ response to the rumors was immediate: if European first aid went to Turkey and not Syria, it was because Damascus did not formally ask for it. It seems it took two days for the application to be submitted.
Today, the EU also “firmly” denied the accusation that the sanctions could affect aid to the earthquake-affected population. According to EU crisis management commissioner Janez Lenarcic, “these sanctions, let’s not forget, have been implemented in response to the violent repression that the Syrian regime has exerted since 2011, including the use of chemical weapons, against its own civilian population”. However, despite this, “The European Union has been funding and supporting humanitarian organizations cooperating with us in Syria for more than 10 years. The truth is that the humanitarian situation in Syria has been depressing for over a decade and the last earthquake has done nothing. “We are stepping up our efforts through the humanitarian organizations we collaborate with, fund and have already re-directed some of the activities in response to the earthquake.”
“We are working to increase our financial support to the affected areas in Syria through our aid programmes,” the Commissioner added, and assured that Brussels would be on guard to avoid the use of “distorted” humanitarian aid by Bashar’s regime, Assad. Several activists critical of the Syrian leader warned that any humanitarian aid to Damascus would go towards military reinforcement of the regime, not earthquake victims. On the other hand, the region affected by the earthquake also includes the Idlib region, which is one of the few regions that escaped Damascus’s control. Yesterday, it was alleged that Assad’s daughter, Zein, used social media to invite her compatriots not to send money to “terrorists” in this region.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
