Abu Faour Attends Geneva Talks on Syria Refugees, Says 'We Really Need Help'
The U.N. refugee agency and Syria's overburdened neighbors Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq on Wednesday urged the international community to put differences aside and find a common solution to end the "cycle of horror."
"We strongly appeal to the international community to overcome existing differences and come together to stop the fighting," Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said as he read a joint statement after talks with ministers from the four countries.
"A political solution to end this cycle of horror is urgently needed. There is no humanitarian solution to the Syrian crisis. Rather there needs to be a political solution that ends the humanitarian crisis," he said.
Guterres was flanked by Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs Wael Abu Faour, plus Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and his Turkish and Iraqi counterparts Ahmet Davutoglu and Hoshyar Zebari.
“We don't really know what to do, we really need help,” Abu Faour told reporters after the meeting.
He said Lebanon was committed to host and protect Syrians, despite the heavy burden, a message echoed by his counterparts.
"The response of the international community to this crisis is frustrating. It's frustrating on the humanitarian level. It's frustrating on the political level," Abu Faour said.
The four countries have received the overwhelming majority of the two million Syrians who have fled their homeland since the war started in March 2011, and are being stretched to the limit as they cope with the influx.
On average, some 5,000 Syrians continue to flee their country every day, according to U.N. data.
Counting refugees and the estimated 4.2 million people the U.N. says have been displaced within Syria, nearly a third of the country's pre-war population of 20.8 million have now been uprooted.
"What Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq are doing is an enormous service on behalf of the international community as a whole," Guterres said, adding that the nations were "paying an extremely heavy price" for their generosity.
"The impact of such a large number of refugees on their economies, their societies, the impact of a conflict next door on their national security, is something that needs to be fully recognized by the international community," he said.
As a result of the war, Lebanon's population has risen by more than a fifth and Jordan's by over 10 percent.
There are 720,000 registered refugees in Lebanon, 520,000 in Jordan, 464,000 in Turkey and 200,000 in Iraq, according to UNHCR data, though the real numbers could be far higher.
The conflict has claimed over 100,000 lives.
Source: Agence France Presse
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