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Foreign Minister Steinmeier on the UN Security Council statement on Syria
Foreign Minister Steinmeier issued the following statement on 17 August on the adoption in the Security Council of a presidential statement on Syria:
For the second time in the last two weeks, the Security Council has shown that it is capable of reaching decisions on the crisis in Syria. After the Vienna agreement reached with Iran, it could now be possible to overcome the blockades of recent years. With the adoption of the statement by consensus today, the Security Council has made it clear that the suffering in Syria must, at last, be brought to an end, and that this can only be achieved with a political solution on the basis of the Geneva Communiqué.
All members of the Security Council have given clear expression to their support for UN Special Envoy de Mistura’s plans to prepare a political transition process with the help of intra‑Syrian thematic working groups and supported by an international contact group. This is a good and wise approach. We are in extremely close contact with de Mistura and actors in the region in order to help get this process under way. The world now expects the parties to the conflict to become actively involved in the negotiations.
Background information:
The conflict in Syria has led to what is currently the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 250,000 dead (including over 10,000 children), 12 million refugees, 7.6 million internally displaced persons and 12.2 million people dependent on humanitarian assistance. Since 2012, Germany’s support in the context of the conflict in Syria has been in excess of one billion euros, of which 474 million euros has been committed to humanitarian assistance, 448 million euros to recovery and rehabilitation and bilateral support, and 86.8 million euros to civilian crisis prevention and post‑conflict peacebuilding.