U.S. Pledges $76 Million for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The United States pledged on Wednesday 76 million dollars to Lebanon to help it cope with the rising number of Syrian refugees escaping the war in their country, the state-run National News Agency reported.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told caretaker Premier Najib Miqati during a meeting they held in Kuwait that the U.S. earmarked 76 million dollars to Lebanon to support the Syrian refugees, NNA said.
Kerry met with Miqati after the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria.
NNA quoted him as telling the caretaker prime minister that Washington will continue its cooperation with Lebanon to support the Lebanese army.
He stressed that the pledge made to assist Lebanon is the highest made to any country hosting refugees so far.
At the conference Kuwait pledged 500 million dollars and the United States promised 380 million dollars to alleviate the suffering of Syrians affected by the country's civil war.
The United Nations is appealing for $6.5 billion this year to help Syrians affected the war, its largest-ever funding request for a single crisis.
Kerry said at the conference that the U.S. contribution of $380 million will bring brings America's humanitarian aid contribution to Syrian victims to $1.7 billion since the war began.
Half of the money — 177 million dollars — will go to U.N. programs for victims still in Syria. The rest is for neighboring nations that have taken in an estimated 2.3 million refugees who have fled the country.
NNA said that Kerry lauded the efforts of Miqati to help the formation of the new cabinet.
15 January 2014, 12:32
67
Lebanon's fair share of the USA $380 million should be far higher than the announced $76 million. It is Lebanon not Turkey nor Jordan that has suffered the most from this war and Lebanon has the most refugees by far.
15 January 2014, 17:59
44
banisitzeinab... some of the comments you make are so idiotic, that I no longer know whether to feel offended or sorry for you!
if foreign arms and fighters didn't invade syria than maybe the revolution would have succeeded through righteousness! maybe the syrian peoples could have voted and agreed on the freedoms newly offered by the baath regime and 100s of thousands of people could still be alive.
maybe $75 million would be a reasonable amount of aid if it wasn't over 1 million refugees in a country of 4 million people! imagine australia dealing with 6 million refugees or the usa receiving 30 million refugees in 8 months!
this is a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions in lebanon and the world is laughing! lebanon is a country that has 500,000 Palestinians, 70,000 iraqis and 1,000,000 syrian refuges in a country of 3.7 million people! thanks but no thanks. we dont need money, we just need the refugees to leave lebanon!
15 January 2014, 19:14
43
Bani, spot on. The money will be split between the 'caretaker' government thieves. Aoun/basil berry jumbatt and nusrallah.
15 January 2014, 12:34
46
Great ! That will feed them for 2 weeks... then what ? We need $5 billion and even that is not enough !
15 January 2014, 12:48
66
The fact is that the US\NATO\GCC terrorist aggression in Syria has amounted to billions upon billions of dollars ... These contributions they make are a fraction of the money they have spent to destroy Syria.
15 January 2014, 14:43
54
@Mckini, I don't know what they spent on the war. I know that the Assad regime got filthy rich by stealing from his people and also stealing from Lebanon. They actually stole billions from our own country and this money is also spent to fuel this war. There is nothing anyone can say to defend Assad for his crimes. Whatever the case, he should go down and pay for his crimes against humanity and against Lebanon !
His money was also spent on funding, training and arming terrorist organisations around the world including Lebanon. Failing to see that means putting your head in the ground.
You may hate the US / Nato / GCC but Assad is the bigger scum, criminal, terrorist, as he has directly harmed Lebanese for decades and still does today !
15 January 2014, 12:52
66
Lebanon should take these supporters of terrorism to the ICC and seek compensation should they not cover their obligations.
15 January 2014, 13:37
74
Miqati did not start this war ... Should you seek those Lebanese that have sponsored this massacre you can start with Saad Hariri and Oqab Saqr and their arms operations.
15 January 2014, 18:55
04
That's seventy five million for members of Parliament and a million for a lavish reception to honor members of Parliament on this auspicious day as they embrace Lebanon's human rights obligations with joy and élan.
