UN Efforts to Facilitate Access of Humanitarian Aid

Press Release

Syrian Coalition

Office of the President

May 30, 2014

The Syrian Coalition's presidency welcomes the announcement that the United Nations stands ready to facilitate, improve and monitor cross-border access in opposition-held areas. But if lives are to be saved today, such readiness must translate into immediate action. Millions of Syrians are facing starvation and preventable illness because the Syrian regime chooses to deny humanitarian aid providers access to opposition-held areas.

There can no longer be any question that the Syrian regime is failing in its responsibilities to the Syrian people. It is failing in its responsibilities to the international community. And it is failing to uphold the will of the Security Council. The United Nations has an ethical and legal obligation to facilitate cross-border access where opposition forces stand ready to assist with such efforts. Anything less is tantamount to facilitating the arbitrary denial of access to aid, and represents little more than picking and choosing which Syrians will live, and which will die.

In a letter delivered to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, the Syrian Coalition noted that consultations at the UN Security Council on Thursday offered further evidence of the Syrian regime’s calculated strategy to starve, torture, and murder innocent civilians into total submission. Since the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2139, the humanitarian situation in Syria has only worsened. Innocent civilians are now the targets of regime-inflicted barrel bombs, chlorine gas attacks, and brutal sieges.

May our wounded recover, our detainees be free, and our fallen heroes rest in peace.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.