BRUSSELS: European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso
warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Monday (Aug
11) against any unilateral intervention in Ukraine, including for
humanitarian reasons.
"Speaking with President Putin, President
Barroso said that the EU would join in international efforts to assist
people in need as a result of the conflict," a commission statement
said. "President Barroso warned against any unilateral military actions
in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian," it added.
UN, 5 August 2014 – With thousands fleeing the intensifying violence in eastern Ukraine, the United Nations refugee agency today urged the Government to establish a central registration system which would help coordinate relief efforts for the already 117,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).
“In the past seven days more than 6,200 people have been forced from their homes,” Vincent Cochetel, the Director for the European Bureau at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) told reporters in Geneva today.
US peremptory claims about Syria being to blame for the aggravation of
the humanitarian crisis and its assessment of Russia’s activities is
clearly an attempt to create conditions for forcing in a
counterproductive resolution, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Alexander Lukashevich said on Wednesday.
‘This is another attempt
to misinform the international community and create a background for
forcing in an unbalanced and counterproductive resolution through the UN
Security Council,’ Lukashevich said answering the media questions in
connection with US President Obama’s statements on Syrian issues made at
a joint press-conference with French President Francois Hollande.
11 February 2014 – United Nations-sponsored talks between the
Syrian Government and opposition that resumed yesterday are making scant
progress in ending the “nightmare” of the civil war, the top mediator
said today, calling for a quicker pace as officials voiced “deep
concern” at the detention by the authorities of men and boys leaving a
long besieged city.
“The beginning of this week is as laborious as it was in the first week
[of the talks]…I’m urging everybody to speed up,” UN-Arab League Joint
Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi told a news briefing
in Geneva of the latest diplomatic push to end a war which has killed
well over 100,000 people and driven nearly 9 million others from their
homes since the conflict erupted between President Bashar al-Assad and
various groups seeking his ouster nearly three years ago.
A joint aid team of United Nations and Syrian Red Crescent workers safely left the Old City of Homs on Saturday after their convoy came under fire as they delivered humanitarian supplies, the Red Crescent said.
In a statement on Twitter, it said one truck driver suffered a minor injury and two damaged trucks had been left inside the Old City.
Four Red Cross employees injured as trucks enter besieged Syria areas ....
4 February 2014 – The United Nations today began a new airlift from Iraq to feed nearly 30,000 displaced people in a conflict-torn region of northeast Syria where road access has been cut off for over six months and no significant relief deliveries have arrived overland since last May.
The airlift comes as the UN World Food Programme (WFP)
faces in Syria what is currently its most complex emergency globally,
with challenges ranging from bureaucratic delays, insecurity on roads,
the closure of major highways, and sieges imposed on civilians trapped
in over 40 locations across the country due to the civil war.
Syria has handed Russia plans for a ceasefire in Syria’s biggest
city, Aleppo, and was ready to exchange lists with rebel forces on a
possible prisoner swap, its foreign minister Walid Muallem told a joint
news conference in Moscow with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov before a
planned peace conference on Syria in Switzerland next week
“I
count on the success of this plan if all sides carry out their
obligations,” Reuters quoted Muallem as saying following talks with
Lavrov.
“We would like this to serve as an example to other towns,” Muallem said of the plan for Aleppo.
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2 January 2014 – An unprecedented number of people are beginning
the New Year either internally displaced or as refugees, the United
Nations humanitarian chief warned today, urging sustained support in
2014 for millions who have been driven from their homes by violence and
bloodshed or uprooted by devastating natural disasters.
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3 December 2013 – Reporting “modest progress” with the Syrian
Government on speeding up visa issuance and increasing the number of
relief distribution hubs, a top United Nations official said today that
with perhaps 250,000 Syrians cut off from aid in besieged communities
across the war-torn country, greater efforts are needed to ensure real
gains on the humanitarian front.
“I advised the Security Council that we have seen some modest progress
in terms of administrative procedures that had been put in place over
time,” said Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian
Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, as she spoke to reporters
after briefing the 15-member body on the humanitarian situation in
Syria.