MEPs call for aid and donor conference about Iraq and Syria

USPA NEWS - The international community must deliver on its pledges to step up humanitarian aid and assistance to the millions suffering in the crisis in Iraq and Syria, MEPs urged in a resolution voted on Thursday.

They also called on the EU to consider convening a donor conference and stressed the need for a political transition in Syria and an inclusive government in Iraq to cut the ground from under the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh). More immediate humanitarian aid and assistance to those affected by the crisis in Iraq and Syria is needed, not least because of the severe winter sweeping the region, MEPs said. They called on the EU to consider convening a donor conference and also to press all donors to fulfil their promises and pledges swiftly.

MEPs strongly condemned the "gruesome systematic and widespread human rights abuses and violations committed by the Assad regime, the terrorists of ISIL/Daesh and other jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria, including the killing of hostages as well as all violence against persons based on their religious and ethnic affiliation, and violence against women and LGBT persons“. They also condemned ISIL/Daesh abuses of children and called for the immediate release of all hostages.

The EU needs a comprehensive regional strategy to defeat ISIL/Daesh, help to mitigate the humanitarian crisis and end the conflict in Syria and Iraq, MEPs said. This strategy must include supporting countries hosting refugees, engaging with regional partners to cut terrorism financing, the supply of weapons and the flow of foreign fighters as well as to fight violent extremism. Finally, MEPs underlined that there can be no sustainable peace in Syria and Iraq without accountability for the crimes committed by all sides during the conflict, particularly on religious or ethnic grounds.