Pretoria - With Syria on the brink of a so-called ‘abyss,’ United Nations agencies have urged neighbouring countries to keep its borders open amid a growing exodus of Syrians fleeing the protracted conflict.
“Syria could be on the edge of an abyss. This war has resulted in a humanitarian calamity without parallel in recent history,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres.
“When a war sweeps up a nation, there can be nothing more important to its people than open borders.”
Guterres, along with Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Ertharin Cousin, is currently in Baghdad, Iraq, which is home to 200 000 Syrians.
“Now is the time for the global community to come together to ensure the violence ends and the healing begins,” Cousin said, adding that the “children of Syria are depending on us not just to meet their needs today but to provide hope for a better tomorrow.”
The UN officials noted that the presence of thousands of refugees creates a tremendous stress on communities, and pledged to actively engage development actors to help host communities so their infrastructure is bolstered and their burden is eased.
They called on donors to boost funds to assist Syrian refugees in Iraq as needs escalate. In the last two weeks alone, 46 000 Syrians crossed the border in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. They also thanked the Government of Iraq for its announcement of a donation today of $10 million to UNHCR to assist refugees in the country.
The call by UN agencies comes as US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called respectively prime ministers of Britain and Canada over possible responses to the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, while the United Nations stressed its rejection to a military solution to the crisis.
The White House described the phone conversation between Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the second since Saturday, as part of the ongoing consultations about Syria, where the government and opposition have traded blame for the chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus on 21 August, in which 1 300 people were reportedly killed.
Obama and Cameron discussed "possible responses" to the attack and agreed to "stay in close consultation in the coming days," the White House said.
Even though a UN inspection team has not drawn a conclusion on the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict, Washington has pinned the blame on the Syrian government and vowed to hold it accountable.
It reported that Obama is considering a limited military strike on Syrian targets, involving sea-launched cruise missiles or possibly long-range bombers. The world market was deeply concerned about the looming Western response to the Syrian conflict.
Global stocks tumbled on Tuesday, while oil and gold prices surged to multi-month highs.
On the ground, the UN Chemical Weapons Investigation Team postponed its second day of on-site probe in Syria due to safety concerns following Monday's attack on the UN vehicles.
Unknown snipers shot at the first vehicle of the UN inspectors on Monday as they were heading for the eastern suburbs of Damascus, the Syrian capital, to investigate the latest alleged use of chemical weapons.
The team has completed its first day of work and was to continue its investigation at different sites.
The United Nations has stressed its rejection to a military solution to the 29-month strife between the Syrian government and opposition forces. - SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua
