ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan: Movie star Angelina Jolie visited a camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan on Sunday, calling for a political solution to Syria’s long-running civil war and saying that “humanitarian aid is not a long-term solution.”
Children crowded around the US actress as she spoke in a patch of muddy space between hundreds of rows of caravans in the desert camp of Zaatari, less than an hour’s drive from the Syrian border.
It was Jolie’s fifth visit to Jordan.
“It is heartbreaking to return to Jordan and witness the levels of hardship and trauma among Syrian refugees as this war enters its eighth year,” Jolie said after meeting refugee families and teenage girls in a UN-run community program.
“I’m very proud. You’re very strong, all of you,” Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency, told them.
Nearly 5.5 million displaced Syrians are hosted by Jordan, Lebanon and other neighboring countries.
Jolie said the hospitality of the overburdened host countries is “an example to the world at a time when solidarity with refugees is in short supply.”
She said the UN refugee agency received only half the requested funding for the Syria crisis last year and only 7 percent so far this year.
“Humanitarian aid is not a long-term solution. No one wants to get off aid more than a Syrian family,” Jolie said.
“A viable political settlement is the only way to create the conditions for Syrians to be able to return to their homes, to end the human suffering and the strain on host countries,” she added.
Jordan hosts more than 650,000 registered Syrian refugees, according to the UN refugee agency. More than 78,000 live in Zaatari.
Angelina Jolie calls for end to Syria war, meets refugees
Angelina Jolie calls for end to Syria war, meets refugees
Tunisian police arrest member of parliament who mocked president
- Ahmed Saidani mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage”
TUNIS: Tunisian police arrested lawmaker Ahmed Saidani on Wednesday, two of his colleagues said, in what appeared to be part of an escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied.
Saidani has recently become known for his fierce criticism of Saied. On Tuesday, he mocked the president in a Facebook post, describing him as the “supreme commander of sewage and rainwater drainage,” blasting what he said was the absence of any achievements by Saied.
Saidani was elected as a lawmaker at the end of 2022 in a parliamentary election with very low voter turnout, following Saied’s dissolution of the previous parliament and dismissal of the government in 2021.
Saied has since ruled by decree, moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists and critics of Saied, have been imprisoned since he seized control of most powers in 2021.
Activists and human rights groups say Saied has cemented his one-man rule and turned Tunisia into an “open-air prison” in an effort to suppress his opponents. Saied denies being a dictator, saying he is enforcing the law and seeking to “cleanse” the country.
Once a supporter of Saied’s policies against political opponents, Saidani has become a vocal critic in recent months, accusing the president of seeking to monopolize all decision-making while avoiding responsibility, leaving others to bear the blame for problems.
Last week, Saidani also mocked the president for “taking up the hobby of taking photos with the poor and destitute,” sarcastically adding that Saied not only has solutions for Tunisia but claims to have global approaches capable of saving humanity.
Under Tunisian law, lawmakers enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot be arrested for carrying out their duties, although detention is allowed if they are caught committing a crime.
