Follow the latest on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria
The Syrian government has approved the delivery of humanitarian aid across the front lines of the country's civil war, state media said on Friday.
An earthquake has killed at least 22,000 people across site of the epicentre in Turkey and Syria. Most of the hardest-hit areas in Syria are out of government control and are yet to receive any meaningful international aid, days after Monday's quake.
“The Syrian cabinet has approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to all parts of the country, including through the front lines from inside the areas controlled by the state to areas that are out of the state control,” Sana news agency reported.
Aid would be distributed with the help of the UN, Syrian Red Crescent and International Red Cross to guarantee delivery to those who in need.
State media reported that the government had declared Lattakia, Hama, Aleppo and Idlib ― the areas worst-affected ― as disaster zones and would set up a fund to rehabilitate those regions.
Syrian opposition groups have not yet said whether aid would be accepted in this manner.
Fabrizio Carboni, Near and Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross, who is in Syria, told The National: “Any initiative that contributes to alleviating the suffering is welcome.”
The cabinet has approved creating a national fund to rehabilitate affected areas and enable the entry of all donations and relief to the affected areas.
It also delegated ministers to handle aid through the supreme commission of relief.
The Swiss ambassador to the UN, Pascale Baeriswyl, told reporters in New York on Friday that Switzerland and Brazil have requested a Security Council meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria.
This meeting is expected to take place early next week so that Security Council members can hear directly from UN aid chief Martin Griffiths on the “the humanitarian needs of the affected population”.
Mr Griffiths is currently in Turkey and is set to travel over the weekend to Syria.
The first UN convoy since the earthquake passed from Turkey into north-west Syria through the Bab Al Hawa border crossing on Thursday, said the UN.
Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he hoped the UN could use more than one border crossing to deliver aid to Syria.
A UN diplomat told The National that Security Council members had discussed expanding access and including one or more additional border crossings.
The UN diplomat suggested the best way to address “humanitarian needs, doesn't necessarily require a UN Security Council resolution”.
Louis Charbonneau, UN director for Human Rights Watch, told The National that Security Council approval is not a legal prerequisite to conduct cross-border aid operations into Syria.
Mr Charbonneau said if the Security Council is deadlocked and the UN determines it’s feasible and safe, then the “UN should push ahead to address the crisis and help victims”.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Hotel Data Cloud profile
Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
Size: 10 employees
Funding: $350,000 (Dh1.3 million)
Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
if you go
The flights
Flydubai offers three daily direct flights to Sarajevo and, from June, a daily flight from Thessaloniki from Dubai. A return flight costs from Dhs1,905 including taxes.
The trip
The Travel Scientists are the organisers of the Balkan Ride and several other rallies around the world. The 2018 running of this particular adventure will take place from August 3-11, once again starting in Sarajevo and ending a week later in Thessaloniki. If you’re driving your own vehicle, then entry start from €880 (Dhs 3,900) per person including all accommodation along the route. Contact the Travel Scientists if you wish to hire one of their vehicles.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
