03:19Germany: FM Steinmeier meets with UNHCR chief to talk humanitarian aid to Syria
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier held a joint press conference with the newly appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, after a meeting they held to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria, in Berlin on Wednesday.
Steinmeier summed up international diplomatic efforts aimed at finding solutions to the Syrian crisis, saying that Germany had donated €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion) in total to the financial and humanitarian aid package for the Syrian crisis. Moreover, he discussed agreements that were made during the recent Munich Security Conference and the difficulties in implementing them, saying "it was obvious how difficult it was coming together and to make the essential meetings happen between Tehran and Riyadh, to ensure the presence of the foreign ministers."
Steinmeier went on to say that "Munich itself was a difficult conversation, a difficult debate, late into the night ... But we came out with two agreements, where we will have to see if the parties will view them as mandatory and follow them," he added.
The German foreign minister finished his statement on a hopeful note, saying that after talking to the UN special envoy to Syria, who was in Damascus Tuesday, "it looks like it might work, following the Munich agreements, to send in at least four more big aid convoys."
03:19German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier held a joint press conference with the newly appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, after a meeting they held to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria, in Berlin on Wednesday.
Steinmeier summed up international diplomatic efforts aimed at finding solutions to the Syrian crisis, saying that Germany had donated €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion) in total to the financial and humanitarian aid package for the Syrian crisis. Moreover, he discussed agreements that were made during the recent Munich Security Conference and the difficulties in implementing them, saying "it was obvious how difficult it was coming together and to make the essential meetings happen between Tehran and Riyadh, to ensure the presence of the foreign ministers."
Steinmeier went on to say that "Munich itself was a difficult conversation, a difficult debate, late into the night ... But we came out with two agreements, where we will have to see if the parties will view them as mandatory and follow them," he added.
The German foreign minister finished his statement on a hopeful note, saying that after talking to the UN special envoy to Syria, who was in Damascus Tuesday, "it looks like it might work, following the Munich agreements, to send in at least four more big aid convoys."