Syria Approves Visas for UN Staff
UNITED
NATIONS -- Syria has agreed to grant visas to 47 UN staff members
following months of haggling that have undermined UN relief efforts in
the war-torn country, the UN aid chief said on Thursday (Aug 27).
Stephen O'Brien, the under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council Thursday that the Syrian mission to the United Nations had informed him of the decision to allow the UN staff in the country.
"I
have just this minute received news from the Syrian mission that the 47
pending visas for the United Nations are going to be granted," O'Brien
said. He had asked the Syrian government to approve the visa requests
during his visit to Damascus earlier this month.
O'Brien also said on Thursday
Damascus was taking less time to approve deliveries of humanitarian
supplies after repeated complaints from the United Nations over the lack
of cooperation. The visa decision stood out as a positive development
in an otherwise grim humanitarian crisis in Syria.
O'Brien said
violence has escalated in Syria over the past month, with indiscriminate
attacks carried out by all sides in the conflict, now in its fifth
year.
UN relief workers delivered food to only 12 per cent of the
4.6 million Syrians living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas during
the first half of 2015, he told the council.
Last month, he said,
no food or other aid from the United Nations reached any of the besieged
areas, where some 422,000 people live. "I am angry, because we as the
international community are not allowed and able to do more to protect
Syrians who more than ever need our unfaltering support," O'Brien told
the 15-member council.
The former British MP, who took over the
key UN job in May, urged the Security Council to show leadership and to
push for a political solution to end the war that has left over 240,000
dead.
Some 7.6 million people have been displaced within the country and four million have fled abroad.
O'Brien
said that over one million people have been driven from their homes
this year alone. He said he will travel to Turkey and Jordan next month
for a closer look at the refugee crisis in those countries.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
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