COMMENTI DELL’AMBASCIATORE SEBASTIANO CARDI, RAPPRESENTANTE PERMANENTE D’ITALIA PRESSO LE NAZIONI UNITE, AL MEETING INFORMALE DELL’ASSEMBLEA GENERALE SULLA SITUAZIONE UMANITARIA IN SIRIA (25 febbraio 2014)

Italy align itself to the statement delivered by the EU.

Italy welcomes the adoption, last Saturday, of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 on the humanitarian situation in Syria and looks forward to a swift implementation of the provisions of the resolution.

Syria is facing the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our times. More than 9.3 million people are in urgent need of assistance, and more than 2.4 million have left the country. Italy’s humanitarian intervention, both within Syria and in the countries of the Region -Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt- has so far reached 26,6 million euro. This year we will continue to increase efforts by providing an additional humanitarian aid worth 38 million euro pledged at the Kuwait Conference on the 15th of January.

However, the most urgent issue in Syria is not funding but rather access to humanitarian aid, since 250.000 people are trapped in besieged areas. As assessed in Rome at the High Level Group on the humanitarian challenges of the Syria crisis, we must continue to exert effective pressure on all parties to the conflict, particularly on the Syrian Government, to respect the basic rules of the International Humanitarian Law and immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need. The civilians shall be protected and the indiscriminate bombing against people standing in line for bread, schools and hospitals shall be immediately stopped.

This is not only a moral imperative to which all the International community should respond, but also a fundamental building block to set the right conditions for the ongoing political process, which we are closely following and supporting. There is no alternative to a political solution to the crisis, safeguarding the unity, integrity and full sovereignty of the country, and which should guarantee democracy, rule of law, the respect of all the founding communities and the regional stability, deeply affected by the increasing number of refugees.