12.2 Million Syrians Are in Desperate Need of Aid

An estimated 12.2 million Syrians are in desperate need of aid, U.N. Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos said this week.

Speaking to the U.N. Security Council, Amos urged the extension of the authorization for cross-border aid, which is set to expire on January 9.

Her briefing followed the release of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report on the implementation of the resolution authorizing cross-border delivery to Syrians without government consent, by way of four crossings in three countries.

“According to Ban’s report, the U.N. and its partners have reached an average of 66 hard-to-reach areas per month since the resolution’s adoption compared with an average of 38 per month in the four months leading up to the vote,” the U.N. stated.

The delivery of aid from Turkey and Jordan to rebel-held areas in Syria has “made a difference,” according to Amos, citing U.N. delivery of “aid to nearly all hard-to-reach locations in four governorates – Aleppo, Idlib, Daraa and Quneitra.

“Despite the progress we have made, it is still not enough,” Amos stressed. “We have faced considerable challenges in implementing resolutions 2139 and 2165 and continue to fall short of meeting the humanitarian needs of all the people we aim to reach in Syria,” she added.

Amos went on to describe a grim reality facing many Syrians today: three-quarters of Syria’s population are living in poverty, there has been a 50 percent drop in school attendance, 7.6 million are displaced inside the country and 3.2 million have fled to other countries.

“Every day that passes more Syrian children, women and men die,” Amos said.

Qatar Covertly Training Moderate Syrian Rebels with Help from the U.S.

“Qatar is covertly training moderate Syrian rebels with U.S. help to fight both President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State,” Reuters reports, saying the groups receiving that training “may include more overtly Islamist insurgent groups.”

Up to 20 fighters are identified in Syria and then vetted by the Central Intelligence Agency. “Once cleared of links with ‘terrorist’ factions, they travel to Turkey and are then flown to Doha and driven to the base,” Reuters wrote.

The base, located in a military zone guarded by Qatari Special Forces, has been training the Free Syrian Army and other moderate rebels for nearly a year, according to sources cited by Reuters.

The Daily Beast reported yesterday that the U.S. hadn’t even started training the Syrian rebel army to fight ISIS and training won’t start till next year, despite approval from Congress for a “train and equip mission.”

Russia to Boost Support for Assad, Calls Terrorism the Biggest Threat to Regional Stability

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in his first meeting with a top envoy from Damascus since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, AP reports.

After the meeting, al-Moallem said that Putin wanted closer times with Syria’s Assad and wanted to strengthen the “partnership between the two countries.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he did not expect another round of peace talks similar to those that took place in Switzerland, but did indicate that Russia supported the U.N. ceasefire proposal.

“If you are counting on the announcement of another conference like the one that was called in Montreux this January, with the participation of 50 states, thousands of journalists, TV lights … such a conference won’t be,” he said.

Lavrov went on to say that Russia and Syria agree that terrorism is the main threat to stability in the Middle East and that Russia would continue to support Syria in “countering this threat.” The Syrian government struck the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa on Tuesday.

NATO Rules Out Establishing a No-fly Zone in Northern Syria

NATO is not considering establishing a “no-fly zone” in Northern Syria, a move that Turkey has been advocating in order to shed humanitarian and security pressures on its borders, Reuters reports.

“A no-fly zone is a resource-intensive undertaking … that’s not something we’re looking at right now in this context,” Lieutenant-General John Nicholson, the new head of LANDCOM, told Reuters in an interview.

Air defense, a necessary component of the “safe zones,” would not only be extremely costly financially but would require an agreement from the Syrian government on targeting Damascus’s advanced air defense systems, according to military analysts.

Disagreement over the establishment of a no-fly zone reflects wider divisions between Turkey and the West on how to tackle ISIS and the ongoing violence inside Syria.

Since the launch of U.S. strikes on ISIS in Syria, Assad’s government has ramped up its air assault on rebel-held areas.

Recommended Reads

• Foreign Policy: What Obama Doesn’t Understand About Syria
• CNN: Why I Went Back to Syria
• The Telegraph: Syria’s Civil War Still Wages in the Heart of the Old Christian War
• Agence France-Presse: Turkey’s Erdogan Attacks U.S. ‘Impertinence’ on Syria
• Agence France-Presse: Christians Hold Out in Syria Despite Jihadist Threat
• Associated Press: U.S. Man, Who Kept Syria Travel Secret, Released
• BBC: British Brothers Jailed for Training at Syria Terror Camp

Photo Courtesy of AP Images