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Top U.N. Relief Official Says Syria Crisis Worsening Top U.N. Relief Official Says Syria Crisis Worsening
(about 2 hours later)
The top emergency relief official at the United Nations expressed new alarm on Tuesday at the humanitarian crisis stemming from Syria’s civil war, telling the Security Council that despite some modest progress, both the government and insurgent sides were still impeding urgent deliveries of food and medicine to millions of desperate civilians. UNITED NATIONS — The top emergency relief official at the United Nations expressed new alarm on Tuesday at the humanitarian crisis caused by Syria’s civil war, telling the Security Council that despite some modest progress, both the government and insurgent sides were still impeding urgent deliveries of food and medicine to millions of desperate civilians.
Speaking to reporters after a closed briefing for Security Council diplomats, the official — Valerie Amos, the under secretary general and emergency relief coordinator — said that the Syrian authorities were allowing aid convoys to cross into the country from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, but had refused to allow any deliveries from Turkey, which the Syrian government has accused of abetting the insurgency. Speaking to reporters after a closed briefing for Security Council diplomats, the official — Valerie Amos, the under secretary general and emergency relief coordinator — said that the Syrian authorities had been permitting international aid convoys from Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, but had refused to allow any from Turkey, which the Syrian government has accused of abetting the insurgency.
Ms. Amos said that nine aid convoys had entered Syria over the past month, three times as many as in earlier months, “but in the context of the scale of this crisis, this is still far too few to meet the needs of the millions of people.”Ms. Amos said that nine aid convoys had entered Syria over the past month, three times as many as in earlier months, “but in the context of the scale of this crisis, this is still far too few to meet the needs of the millions of people.”
She declined to say whether she thought a Security Council resolution ordering increased humanitarian access would help the situation. In October, the council unanimously approved a presidential statement on the subject, which carries less coercive weight than a resolution; the statement asked all sides in the Syrian conflict to allow international relief groups access to civilians cut off by the fighting. In the two months since the Security Council unanimously approved a presidential statement urging all sides to allow emergency humanitarian access, she said, some other advances had been made, including the appointment of interlocutors to help relief teams distribute aid. But on the protection of civilians, demilitarization of schools and hospitals and access to hardest-to-reach areas, Ms. Amos said, “we have not seen any progress on those.”
Ms. Amos spoke as Human Rights Watch issued a new report on Tuesday accusing both the government and some of its opponents of preventing the delivery of assistance to areas under siege. The report urged the Security Council to take more decisive measures. She declined to say whether a Security Council resolution, which carries more coercive weight than a presidential statement, might help.
The group said, based on telephone interviews with local activists and residents in the Damascus countryside and the city of Homs, that “people are suffering from an increasingly severe shortage of food and that people are dying from lack of medical care because of the siege.” Ms. Amos spoke as Human Rights Watch issued a new report accusing both the Syrian government and some of its opponents of preventing the delivery of assistance. The report, which urged the Security Council to take more decisive measures, said that “people are suffering from an increasingly severe shortage of food and that people are dying from lack of medical care because of the siege.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of contacts inside Syria that has chronicled the fighting and casualties, said on Monday that by its count, nearly 126,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of contacts inside Syria that has chronicled the fighting, said on Monday that by its count, nearly 126,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
United Nations officials have estimated that nearly seven million people inside Syria are in urgent need of food and medical assistance, and that the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries will reach three million by year’s end. United Nations officials have estimated that nearly seven million people inside Syria are in urgent need of food and medical assistance, and that Syrian refugees in neighboring countries will total three million by year’s end.
The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, spoke to reporters after Ms. Amos’s briefing to the Security Council. Mr. Jaafari cast the humanitarian crisis in a less negative light, asserting that the Syrian government’s cooperation with the United Nations and other international relief groups had eased some of the suffering. The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, who spoke to reporters after Ms. Amos’s briefing to the Security Council, cast the humanitarian crisis in a less negative light, asserting that the Syrian government’s cooperation with international relief groups had eased some of the suffering.
The ambassador said the government had doubled the number of regional assistance hubs within the country, to six from three, and was approving visas for foreign aid workers more quickly. Mr. Jaafari also had harsh words for Saudi Arabia, long accused by his government of financing, recruiting and arming Sunni jihadist militants linked to Al Qaeda that are waging war in Syria. He said “thousands of Saudi fighters” had been killed in Syria and that the government had taken 300 Saudis prisoner. Saudi diplomats did not return telephone calls for comment.
Mr. Jaafari had harsh words for Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, whom the Syrian government has long accused of financing and arming Sunni jihadist militant groups linked to Al Qaeda that are waging war on his government. He said “thousands of Saudi fighters” had been killed in Syria and that the government had taken 300 of them prisoner. There was no immediate comment from Saudi diplomats on his assertions.
“Somebody should hold the Saudis responsible for what they are doing,” Mr. Jaafari said.“Somebody should hold the Saudis responsible for what they are doing,” Mr. Jaafari said.
He dismissed assertions made on Monday by the top United Nations human rights official, Navi Pillay, linking Mr. Assad to war crimes in the country. In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group that is fighting on Mr. Assad’s side in Syria, accused Saudi Arabia directly for the first time on Tuesday of involvement in the deadly double bombing at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut last month. Mr. Nasrallah, in an interview on the Lebanese television channel OTV, said Saudi intelligence had collaborated with Qaeda-linked militants to carry out the embassy attack, which was a direct challenge to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival for power.
“Did she declare herself a new prophet?” he said. But Mr. Nasrallah also pushed with new vigor in the interview for a political solution in Syria. He praised the signs of rapprochement between Iran and the United States as having averted regional war.

Anne Barnard contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.