UN issues distress call over war-affected Syrians

Kuwait City: The UN sent out a distress signal on Wednesday, warning that nearly half Syria`s population needs urgent humanitarian assistance and that some 245,000 Syrians living in besieged areas are facing severe food shortages.

The warnings by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos came at a one-day donors` conference in Kuwait City aimed at raising USD 6.5 billion in aid for war-affected Syrians. During the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference, donors stumped up a combined USD 1.6 billion, way short of the target but more than the amount of USD 1.5 billion pledged at a similar meeting a year ago. The Kuwait gathering comes a week before the so-called Geneva II peace conference, which is aimed at ending the conflict that has killed 130,000 people in nearly three years. In the build-up to the January 22 peace conference, which is being driven by the US and Russia, Syria`s President Bashar al-Assad held talks in Damascus today with the foreign minister of Iran, a key ally of his regime, Syrian state media said. State television reported that Assad, during his meeting with Mohammad Javad Zarif, slammed Sunni-led Saudi Arabia`s religious ideology as "a threat to the world". "Everyone must contribute to the confrontation against (Wahhabism) and to eradicating it from the root," said Assad, who belongs to the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam. The comments came amid simmering tension between Syria and Saudi Arabia, which backs the rebellion against Assad. State news agency SANA meanwhile quoted Zarif as saying the purpose of his visit "was to help ensure that the Geneva II conference brings about results that are in the interests of the Syrian people." Iranian media reported that UN chief Ban had reiterated his stance on the "necessity" of Iran`s presence at the Syria peace conference. "In our negotiations with all regional and international parties who are involved in the Syrian crisis, I emphasised the necessity of Iran`s participation," Ban was quoted as saying during a meeting in Kuwait with Iran`s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.