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Syria slams 'hypocrisy' of donors
[Rudaw] Syria on Friday accused donors who pledged aid to help its citizens displaced by the country's eight-year war of "hypocrisy" as they continue to impose sanctions on the regime.International donors -- led by the European Union  ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...-- meeting on Thursday in Brussels pledged nearly $7 billion in aid for 2019 for civilians caught up in the conflict. But European powers stressed progress on a UN-led grinding of the peace processor must come before they release funds to rebuild Syria -- though they no longer insist Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad The Scourge of Hama... must go. "The hypocrisy of the discourse of the officials of some countries taking part in the Brussels conference is both laughable and angering," a source at the foreign ministry said. EU sanctions have deprived "the European Union of any credibility when it speaks about helping Syrians and alleviating their suffering," state news agency SANA quoted the source as saying. The source criticised what it called the "deliberate and systematic politicisation of the humanitarian issue and attempts to use it through conferences like these to continue to exert pressure on Syria and compound the crisis." It slammed the conference for not inviting the Damascus government, calling it the "main concerned party" in the matter. Since late 2011, the 28-member bloc has imposed sanctions on 277 Syrian officials including Damascus ministers over their role in the "violent repression" of civilians. It has frozen the assets of some 72 entities and introduced an embargo on Syrian oil, investment restrictions and a freeze on Syrian central bank assets within the European Union. The United States has also imposed a flurry of sanctions against Syrian officials, and had worked to hamper oil shipping to Syria. Damascus says the sanctions have contributed to a fuel crisis in the country, which on Friday marked the eighth anniversary of its civil war. Numerous rounds of US-backed peace talks have failed to stem the bloodshed, which has killed more than 370,000 people and pushed millions more from their homes.
But it was unclear how or when the money would be made available to those in need. EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said the donors made a “collective pledge of almost $7 billion” for 2019, short of the $8 billion that the United Nations had hoped to raise for humanitarian aid inside Syria and for refugees living in difficult conditions in neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, as well as Egypt. The EU, the world’s biggest aid donor, announced that it would provide 560 million euros ($633 million) this year, while planning to offer the same amount next year and in 2021. It also pledged a significant slice of the money — some 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) — for refugees in Turkey. This was previously offered by the EU to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2015 to help persuade him to get the Turkish coast guard to stop Syrian refugees and other migrants from setting out for Greece. Lowcock said this additional 1.5 billion euros “is one of the reasons why it looks as though we’re going to have a good outcome on the pledging.” The United States pledged more than $397 million in refugee support. Before and during the conference, the EU continued to refuse to help rebuild Syria until a political settlement has been reached, even though some NGOs believe that stance is a serious obstacle to genuine aid efforts. Absent from the donor conference are Syrians themselves — no government or opposition representatives have been invited. Civil society groups are concerned that donor countries want to pressure Syrian refugees to return, despite the dangers and uncertainties they face. Lowcock acknowledged that conditions are not yet right “for large-scale returns.” Posted by: trailing wife 2019-03-16 |
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