LONDON: Syria can transform from an importer of regional problems to an exporter of genuine solutions and stability in the Middle East, despite mounting humanitarian concerns in neighboring Lebanon and the conflict in Iran, top UN officials say.
Speaking in Damascus a day after meeting President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Tom Fletcher, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, and Alexander De Croo, administrator of the UN Development Programme, hailed Syria’s transition from aid recipient toward development.
“We are at the moment where we can shift from purely humanitarian to also doing development work,” De Croo said.
“Development work for many reasons, but the main reason is that we see that there are many returnees. Last year, more than 1.6 million people have returned to Syria, have returned to reconstruct their country, to come back to the country which they left, often in dramatic circumstances.”
In addition to their meeting with Al-Sharaa, the UN officials were also visiting the Syrian capital to launch this year’s Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for the country.
“The region is in urgent need for a success story,” De Croo said. “And Syria could be a success story if we are able to stand on the side of the Syrian people and provide the services that are needed.”
Despite promising signs, however, the US-Israeli war with Iran, and its regional escalation, is having a negative effect on Syria’s efforts to rebuild after more than a decade of civil war, wiping out months of progress each day, he added.
“A war like this destroys months of development progress, and here the estimation is that it would lead to a scaling back of one-and-a-half years of progress, an economic loss of $190 billion, and more than 4 million people being pushed into poverty,” De Croo said. “This is only an analysis on the Arab states.”
In Lebanon, where enormous levels of displacement have been reported, the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah threatens to undo years of humanitarian progress. The sheer number and scale of attacks in the country is devastating, Fletcher said.
“Medics and paramedics are coming under attack … Hezbollah’s rocket fire indiscriminately into Israel and Israel’s devastating military action in Lebanon — one-in-five people in Lebanon is displaced right now,” he added.
“I saw for myself enormous destruction, the impact of coercive displacement, and came away with two real concerns. We may be facing the prospect — and from the sound of the statements being made by some Israeli ministers it’s a real danger — of a fresh occupation, of a fresh occupied territory in southern Lebanon.
“I came away with a real concern about national cohesion and the importance of all Lebanese parties pulling together in this moment of real fragility and concern as so many people are on the move.”
Despite progress in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, more than 16 million people in the country still rely on humanitarian aid, Fletcher said, and clearing of landmines and munitions remains a crucial goal of authorities.
“I think we’re all conscious of the need to keep Syria out of that wider regional crisis, but there’s potential now for Syria to move from being an importer of problems from the region to an exporter of genuine solutions and stability,” he said.
Meanwhile, the war in neighboring Lebanon remains an immediate threat, he added.
“About 200,000 refugees or displaced people have crossed the border (into Syria) in the last three or four weeks,” Fletcher said.
“The vast majority, about 175,000 of those, are Syrians coming home. But that leaves about 25,000 others, mainly Lebanese and, of course, Palestinians, people who have often been displaced multiple times.
“While the government is preparing and is very focused on creating the conditions where they can close the camps within Syria, these are very, very significant numbers.
“I think one depressing impression I had, and I think it’s shared by so many people in Lebanon, (is) there was a sense of despair and despondency and anxiety on this front.”
Fletcher added: “There’s a sense that this is likely to be a long-running conflict and that even if we reach some sort of moment where the actors declare victory on the US-Israel-Iran conflict, that may not bring to an end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict anytime soon.
“And that will have significant humanitarian implications for Lebanon, but also for the wider region. This is a moment of grave peril, and it’s important that the UN, the whole UN family, are here in support of the people in greatest need.”
