Mogherini underscores need for progress on Syria crisis
September 21, 2016
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EU High Representative Federica Mogherini on Tuesday continued to exert political pressure for progress on the crisis in Syria, in the wake of the air strikes against a UN/Syrian Red Crescent humanitarian aid convoy near Aleppo, during an intense day of meetings and contacts in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“As members of the International Syria Support Group, the EU calls on the co-chairs, and on all other regional and international actors that are part of the ISSG, to respect and implement the truce and to exert their influence on all parties to the conflict to do the same, committing to a political transition in Syria in accordance with the UNSC resolution 2254,” Mogherini said in a joint statement with Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides, after attending a ISSG meeting in New York.
The EU is calling on all parties to the conflict to respect fully the cessation of hostilities, and demands that the Syrian government allow immediate and unhindered resumption of humanitarian access to all besieged areas and in particular to the people of Aleppo.
In a series of bilateral meetings in New York, Mogherini underlined the EU’s concerns about the situation on the ground stressing the importance of last week’s US-Russian ceasefire agreement and that progress was crucial towards a political transition.
The EU is willing to start considering how to reconstruct the country, but only once there is a stable enough environment for this to become feasible. There can be no reconstruction support until there is a political transition under way, she said. (EU Neighbourhood Info)