German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday called for the opening of border crossings with Syria to allow the arrival of humanitarian aid following Monday’s earthquakes in southern Turkey, near the common border, which have left more than 1,500 dead in the Arab country.
Baerbock has indicated that there is currently only one crossing open, which was damaged by the earthquake, and has argued that the opening of these posts «is important.» «It is absolutely imperative that humanitarian aid gets to where it is needed,» he stressed, as reported by the German news agency DPA.
«All international actors, including Russia, must use their influence on the Syrian regime to ensure that humanitarian aid for the victims can also reach them,» he said. Most of Idlib province and part of Aleppo province, among those most affected by the earthquakes, are outside the control of the Syrian authorities.
For his part, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier lamented from Geneva, where he is visiting international aid organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), that «this tremendous earthquake has caused an unimaginable scale of suffering and destruction.»
The earthquakes have left more than 3,500 dead in Turkey, to which must be added about 810 in the areas of Syria controlled by the government of Bashar al-Assad, as well as another 790 fatalities in rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo (northwest) provinces, according to various balances published during the last hours by the Syrian authorities and the Syrian Civil Defense, known as ‘white helmets’.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
