Brussels, 08/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 7 September the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, called on the EU to take more action in the Syrian crisis.
In de Mistura's view, the EU should have a common policy for hosting the refugees with dignity. He said that the Syrians were losing hope in a solution to the conflict. “They are looking for dignity because they no longer have hope”, he said at a press conference in Brussels, stating that the Syrians who are arriving in Europe had a job and came from the middle classes. In early July, the number of Syrians registered as refugees reached 4 million.
De Mistura also wanted the EU, which is already “very generous”, to give more funding to help the refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. In his view, “Lebanon is on the brink of explosion” because of this lack of funding. Only 31% of the UN plan for Syria is being financed, according to UN data. Since 2012, the EU and its member states have made over €3.9 billion available for the Syrians in Syria and in its neighbouring countries, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. There are currently 12.2 million Syrians, including 5.6 million children, in need of humanitarian assistance.
And while the EU is not directly involved in the conflict, it can put “moral and political pressure” on those who are engaged in the conflict, can tell Russia and the USA “to hurry up” and hold discussions with Iran and Saudi Arabia so that Tehran and Riyadh can talk together, de Mistura said, adding that the USA and Russia need to discuss between them. “They hold regular discussions but they have not yet reached a concrete result on the main issue: 'what will the governance in Syria become?'”, he said, adding that Russia can play a substantial role in finding a political solution because it has an influence on the regime.
“The crisis can be resolved if these four countries start talking seriously”, de Mistura stated. “The time has come not to hide behind words. Everyone is talking about a political solution, but so far we have continued to support a military solution de facto”, he said. “The real solution is a quick political formula between those that can stop the war”, he added. “Now is the time to find the formula otherwise we will find it when there are no more Syrians in Syria, nor perhaps anywhere else”, he warned.
Is Aylan the Syrian Srebrenica? Stating that the Srebrenica massacre had opened the world's eyes to the conflict in Yugoslavia, de Mistura said he believed Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian three-year old who drowned in the sea off Turkey and whose photo has toured the world, had aroused consciences to the “fact that we need to look the causes of the crisis in the eyes”. “There is only one winner [to the conflict]: Daesh. There is only one loser: the Syrian people”, he said, stating that the war was taking more lives than Islamic State. It is therefore “fundamental” not only to fight against Islamic State, but also to find a political solution, de Mistura said, adding that “everyone seems ready to fight until the last Syrian instead of finding a solution” to the conflict. “We no longer have time for a long political process. We must create a concrete hope for the people in Syria”, he said.
Over 220,000 people have reportedly been killed in the conflict since March 2011. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)