Monitoring Desk
BRUSSELS: Syria on Wednesday made an official request to the European Union (EU) for help after the deadly earthquake that struck it and Turkiye this week, said the bloc’s commissioner for crisis management.
The European Commission is “encouraging” the bloc’s member countries to respond to Syria’s request for food and medical supplies, said Commissioner Janez Lenarcic.
The commissioner said that the EU would also closely monitor the use of any aid to ensure “it is not diverted” by the sanctioned government in Damascus.
The European Union was swift to send rescue teams to Turkye after the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the country on Monday close to the border with Syria.
However, it initially offered only minimal assistance to Syria through existing humanitarian programmes because of the bloc’s sanctions imposed in 2011 on the government of President Bashar al-Assad over its crackdown on protesters that spiraled into a civil war.
Nevertheless, the EU said the door was open for the Syrian government to ask for earthquake assistance.
Now that the Syrian government has made that move through the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism that coordinates assistance, Lenarcic said the commission was asking European nations “to respond favourably to this request.”
European Union member states asked for relief assistance
The participants in the European Union mechanism comprise the 27 EU nations plus eight neighbouring non-EU countries that, include Norway and Turkiye.
The Syrian government was asking for “a long list of relief items,” Lenarcic said.
“They need support in the efforts of their rescue services in rescue and search of people trapped under the debris. They need several medical items and medical equipment, and medicines. They need food items and typical emergency aid items,” he said.
European Union sanctions on Syria target members of the government, the military, businesspeople, and prominent companies.
