ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s envoy to the United Nations (UN) has stressed urgent action to ensure adequate resources for the UN response plan to meet humanitarian needs in Syria, Pakistani state media reported on Friday.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher this week called the humanitarian situation in Syria “dire” and said aid workers need protection and safety, noting that humanitarian convoys came under fire this month.
He said money for food and other assistance is desperately needed, pointing to the UN humanitarian appeal for $3.19 billion for 2025 being only 14 percent funded.
Speaking at a UN Security Council briefing on Syria, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador, Usman Jadoon, called for immediate humanitarian support, political inclusivity and respect for the sovereignty of Syria, the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Over 16 million Syrians remain in need of humanitarian assistance,” he was quoted as saying. “It is deplorable that children continue to face hunger and malnutrition on a staggering scale, with access to safe water, health care and education collapsing.”
Syria is also grappling with deep ethnic and religious divisions following the ouster of President Bashar Assad in December, which brought an end to decades of Assad family rule. The transition has proven fragile, with renewed violence erupting in March along the coast and in July in Sweida, a city with a significant Druze population, highlighting the continued threat to peace after years of civil war.
Clashes erupted in Sweida on July 13 between Druze militias and local Bedouin tribes, and government forces intervened, nominally to restore order. Israel intervened in defense of the Druze, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters.
UN envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen warned on Thursday that while violence in Sweida has largely subsided following a ceasefire, “the threat of renewed conflict is ever-present — as are the political centrifugal forces that threaten Syria’s sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.”
“We are still seeing dangerous hostilities and skirmishes on the margins of Sweida. And violence could resume at any moment,” he said, expressing concern that “a month of relative military calm belies a worsening political climate, with escalatory and zero-sum rhetoric hardening among many.”
Pakistan’s Ambassador Jadoon strongly condemned repeated Israeli violations of Syrian sovereignty in Sweida, Daraa, Damascus and the occupied Syrian Golan.
“Such acts are in clear violation of international law, the UN Charter and Security Council’s resolutions,” he added.
