UNSC briefing/consultations on Syria (humanitarian)

[Friday, 20 May 2022; 1000 hrs/ 1930 hrs IST]

I join others in thanking Under Secretary General Martin Griffiths for his briefing today.

2. The humanitarian situation in Syria, as evident from today’s briefing, has not seen any major improvement during the month. The number of people needing humanitarian assistance has now crossed 14 million, with essential food items and fuel in short supply. While the international community’s focus is on the humanitarian situation arising out of Ukraine, we must not lose sight of the sufferings of the Syrian people.

3. Moving decisively forward on the political track in Syria is an urgent imperative to alleviate the sufferings of its people. To realize this, all parties, particularly the external players need to display their commitment, in tangible terms, to a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned UN-facilitated political process in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The initiatives of the regional countries in normalizing the relations with Syria can also positively contribute to addressing the humanitarian situation.

4. We also need to avoid linking humanitarian and developmental assistance with the progress in the political process. Such a position will only exacerbate the humanitarian sufferings. There is an urgent need to scale up assistance and to ensure that humanitarian agencies receive the necessary funding to fully execute their plans without politicization of basic needs of the people. International community needs to constructively look at promoting projects, which will bring much needed jobs and economic opportunities for the Syrian people and thereby help to ease shortfalls. In the face of falling production of food staples and issues related to water shortage, it is important that we address the collective concerns of the Syrian people with utmost seriousness.

5. We also believe that a nation-wide comprehensive ceasefire is in the larger interests of the Syrian people. While cross-border operations are predictable and important, they cannot continue to exist in perpetuity. We note the ongoing efforts, including the 4th convoy from Aleppo facilitated by Syria, and reiterate that OCHA and UN agencies need to focus more efforts to enhance crossline operations.

6. India has been repeatedly reiterating the looming threat posed by resurgence of terrorist groups in Syria. We cannot discuss humanitarian situation in Syria in isolation, without referring to growing activities of terrorist groups such as ISIL/Daesh. The attack on a prison in Al-Hasakeh city by ISIL/Daesh in January demonstrated the severity of the problem. Hostilities, including airstrikes and shelling in north-west Syria, continue to adversely impact civilians, including women and children, particularly in NW Syria.

7. India has been consistently highlighting how external players have contributed to the growth of terrorist groups in Syria. The continuing neglect of this issue by the international community will cause irreparable damage to our collective fight against terrorism. The situation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps housing women and children, also continues to remain serious. Grave concerns remain over the conditions in the camps, where several criminal activities including murders have been reported in 2022.

8. We are concerned that the humanitarian assistance to Syria in 2021 was less than the previous year and thus there is an urgent need to scale up humanitarian assistance. In this regard we request OCHA to harmonize the data related to early recovery and resilience projects in a comprehensive manner so that Council has before it, a holistic view by end of June, well before expiry of the cross-border authorization.

9. In conclusion, India has continued to extend developmental assistance and human resource development support to Syria through grants and lines of credits for developmental projects, supply of medicine and food, artificial limb fitment camps, a Next Generation IT center and capacity building training programs. Since the beginning of the conflict, India has always stood by the Syrian people in their hour of need and will continue to do so.

I thank you.

****