The text of the following statement was released by the
Governments of the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Germany,
Jordan, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, the United Arab
Emirates, the United States, the European Union, and the League
of Arab States following their meeting in Amman, Jordan on
March 21, 2023, to discuss the current situation in Syria in the
aftermath of the earthquakes.
We expressed our heartfelt condolences for the immense
devastation and loss of life caused by the February 6 earthquakes
in Türkiye and Syria, as well as our steadfast commitment to
alleviate the suffering of those affected. We encouraged
the international community to provide humanitarian assistance –
including both emergency response and early recovery projects –
to all Syrians in need, especially those in the most affected
areas. In this regard, we welcomed the outcomes of the
March 20, 2023, international donors’ conference in Brussels to
support the people in Türkiye and Syria, and we also looked
forward to the seventh annual Brussels Conference on the Future
of Syria and the Region on June 15, 2023.
We reiterated our call for a nationwide ceasefire and for
continuous and unhindered humanitarian access to all Syrians
through all modalities, including both cross-border and
cross-line. We called for the maintenance and expansion of
United Nations cross-border aid, for which there is no
alternative in scope or scale. In this regard, we welcomed
the recent facilitation by the Syrian authorities of UN
cross-border humanitarian access through the Bab al-Salam and
al-Rai crossings and called for this to continue.
We also welcomed UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen’s briefing and
reaffirmed our support for UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
