Mogherini: Aleppo must not be abandoned, work on post-conflict Syria showing positive signs
December 5, 2016
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The international community must not abandon Aleppo, and must support European Union efforts to plan for the future of Syria after the war, said the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini on Saturday 03 December, at the panel on the future of Syria with the UN Special Envoy Staffan De Mistura, at the Rome 2016 MED Forum “Beyond Turmoil, A Positive Agenda”.
“We cannot pass the message that Aleppo is lost, we turn the page, we move forward. No, we still need to save the people in Aleppo, to protect the civilians, to call for a stop of the air-strikes,” said the High Representative.
Mogherini called on the rest of the international community to help the humanitarian effort in Syria, where the EU and its Member States have already made available EUR 9 billion in aid. At the same time, in cooperation with the United Nations, she is leading contacts to prepare for the political transition when the fighting is over.
“In the European Union we believe that we cannot abandon the political track,” she said. “I have started to reach out to all our regional friends, and the European Union is well positioned for that, because we talk to everybody, we are friends to everybody in the region. I have started visits in Teheran, in Riyadh, started talks with Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Emirates, Qatar, all the regional actors.”
“So we have started this work. I am very much encouraged, because I see that there are common grounds, common lines that can emerge from these talks,” the High Representative told her audience.