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UN says 6.25 Million Syrians displaced as US builds Strike Case
Syria's civil war has displaced 6.25 million people - the largest refugee group of any country in the world - the UN said Tuesday.
This means that nearly a third of the pre-war population of some 20 million Syrians has been displaced inside the country or has fled across borders.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the number of refugees abroad has passed 2 million, an increase of 1.8 million over the last year. More than half are children.
As of late August, 4.25 million Syrians had fled to safer areas within the country.
Ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are scheduled to meet in Geneva on Wednesday to seek support for their efforts to provide for Syrian refugees, nearly all of whom are being hosted by countries in the region.
So far, the international community has funded less than half of the 2.98 million dollars needed by UN and other aid organizations this year to help Syrian refugees.
"Syria has become the great tragedy of this century - a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history," said UN High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
The latest figures come as a debate on the authorization of military strikes in response to an apparent poison gas attack in Syria was to begin later Tuesday in the United States.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry are due to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A day ahead of a parliamentary debate in France on the issue, the government hinted that it could bow to domestic pressure to hold a vote on any military action.
Minister for Relations with Parliament Alain Vidalies told RTL radio that holding a vote was "not a taboo subject for Francois Hollande," despite the government's insistence that the president has no constitutional obligation to do so.
France has been ramping up efforts to build support for military action, on Monday releasing an intelligence report that said the attack near Damascus "could only have been ordered and carried out by the regime."
A strike seemed imminent at the weekend, but tensions eased when US President Barack Obama said he wanted Congress - in recess until September 9 - to vote to authorize any intervention.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hit back at critics, telling French daily Le Figaro that his government had nothing to gain from using chemical weapons "when our situation on the ground is much better today than it was last year."
In the interview, published Tuesday, al-Assad appeared to rule out the hypothesis that the order to use chemical weapons could have been given by a subordinate, without his knowledge.
"We have never said we possess chemical weapons ... but normally, in countries that have such weapons, the decision is centralized."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to brief the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council later Tuesday on the latest developments in the chemical weapons investigation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told legislators that she was still hoping the UN Security Council could come up with a unified response, and criticized Russia and China's "overall very uncompromising line."
An EU diplomat said that the international community should wait for UN inspectors to complete their report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria before taking action.
"We of course condemn in the strongest terms the attack and we call for the international community to take strong action ... But let's wait until definitive information has been drawn together before we do that, particularly by the UN inspectors," said Michael Mann, a spokesman for foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Mann added that US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to discuss Syria with the European Union's foreign ministers on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defence Ministry said Tuesday that Israel had fired a test rocket over the Mediterranean, in what could have been the basis for an earlier Russian Defence Ministry report that two ballistic missiles had been launched from the central Mediterranean towards its eastern shore.
Source : Sapa-dpa /sdv
Date : 03 Sep 2013 15:12
Syria's civil war has displaced 6.25 million people - the largest refugee group of any country in the world - the UN said Tuesday.
This means that nearly a third of the pre-war population of some 20 million Syrians has been displaced inside the country or has fled across borders.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the number of refugees abroad has passed 2 million, an increase of 1.8 million over the last year. More than half are children.
As of late August, 4.25 million Syrians had fled to safer areas within the country.
Ministers from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are scheduled to meet in Geneva on Wednesday to seek support for their efforts to provide for Syrian refugees, nearly all of whom are being hosted by countries in the region.
So far, the international community has funded less than half of the 2.98 million dollars needed by UN and other aid organizations this year to help Syrian refugees.
"Syria has become the great tragedy of this century - a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history," said UN High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
The latest figures come as a debate on the authorization of military strikes in response to an apparent poison gas attack in Syria was to begin later Tuesday in the United States.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry are due to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A day ahead of a parliamentary debate in France on the issue, the government hinted that it could bow to domestic pressure to hold a vote on any military action.
Minister for Relations with Parliament Alain Vidalies told RTL radio that holding a vote was "not a taboo subject for Francois Hollande," despite the government's insistence that the president has no constitutional obligation to do so.
France has been ramping up efforts to build support for military action, on Monday releasing an intelligence report that said the attack near Damascus "could only have been ordered and carried out by the regime."
A strike seemed imminent at the weekend, but tensions eased when US President Barack Obama said he wanted Congress - in recess until September 9 - to vote to authorize any intervention.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hit back at critics, telling French daily Le Figaro that his government had nothing to gain from using chemical weapons "when our situation on the ground is much better today than it was last year."
In the interview, published Tuesday, al-Assad appeared to rule out the hypothesis that the order to use chemical weapons could have been given by a subordinate, without his knowledge.
"We have never said we possess chemical weapons ... but normally, in countries that have such weapons, the decision is centralized."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to brief the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council later Tuesday on the latest developments in the chemical weapons investigation.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told legislators that she was still hoping the UN Security Council could come up with a unified response, and criticized Russia and China's "overall very uncompromising line."
An EU diplomat said that the international community should wait for UN inspectors to complete their report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria before taking action.
"We of course condemn in the strongest terms the attack and we call for the international community to take strong action ... But let's wait until definitive information has been drawn together before we do that, particularly by the UN inspectors," said Michael Mann, a spokesman for foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Mann added that US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to discuss Syria with the European Union's foreign ministers on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Defence Ministry said Tuesday that Israel had fired a test rocket over the Mediterranean, in what could have been the basis for an earlier Russian Defence Ministry report that two ballistic missiles had been launched from the central Mediterranean towards its eastern shore.
Source : Sapa-dpa /sdv
Date : 03 Sep 2013 15:12
. Kerry is looking upset. Hagel is about to lie about, the outcome may be worse if they strike. They don't agree. "I have never been told to change the momentum just degrade assads military capability". What a silly answer. Considering obama has pledged to remove assad.
