Qatar stresses support for Syrians at London meet

HE the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has said that the plight of the Syrian people is worsening in spite of a number of meetings and initiatives held regarding the crisis, existing in Syria for five years.
He said that relentless bombing campaigns had been targeting civilians round-the-clock as the Syrian tragedy continued.
Starvation threatened multitudes in Syrian cities under siege and many were being deprived of medicines and basic needs of life, he noted.
Speaking at the Syrian Donors Conference 2016, held in London on Thursday, the Minister said the worse thing was what we saw and heard on the sidelines of the Geneva talks showed utter disregard for the fate of the residents of the besieged villages and townships such as Al-Zabadani, Al Fou’ah and Kafriya.
While the civilians were starving, those responsible for the tragedy were continuing to bargain, seeking to use a humanitarian disaster for political gains, challenging all calls issued by effective parties in the international community who had been stressing the need to move away from exchanging the crisis of the besieged people for any negotiated political process, he said.
Sheikh Mohamed said that there had been hope that the Geneva talks would be a real beginning for a comprehensive political solution to the Syrian crisis that would be committed to by all parties involved in the conflict, but unfortunately what we observed was the insistence of some parties to prolong the crisis and push the situation to worsening
conditions.
He said that the good people of the international community were still keen to exert their maximum efforts and money in order to put an end to disasters that had harmed the Syrian people.
“Our conference is a proof that good offices are going on and the State of Qatar, as usual, contributes, through its official and charitable institutions, to comfort Syrian children, women and elderly persons who had been displaced from their homeland while the world is watching unable to find a radical solution to this crisis.”
The Foreign Minister explained that HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani confirmed to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Qatar’s keenness to contribute to all efforts exerted to provide assistance to Syrian refugees and to alleviate their suffering.
In his speech, Sheikh Mohamed expressed thanks to the Emir, government and people of Kuwait and governments of friendly countries, the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway for their initiatives to convene the important meeting in London.