Doorstep remarks by HR/VP Federica Mogherini at the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Vienna
Good afternoon. We had the International Syria Support Group meeting today. US Secretary J. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov, together with Staffan de Mistura are also debriefing some of your colleagues
Out of the Group’s meeting today came a very strong call to all parties in Syria to come back to the table of negotiations for talks in Geneva in order to enter into the work on the transition. This, I would say, is the main political outcome of the meeting.
You will see there is a four-page long Joint Statement by all of us entering into the details of how and how much we want the cessation of hostilities to be restored, controlled and monitored; how we want to make sure that humanitarian access reaches all areas of Syria, in all cases, on all the territory, reaching all the people that are in need to be saved in these hours and days, and building on the good results that in the last months we have managed to put in place in terms of access to besieged areas.
Even if one single village is not reached by humanitarian access, we are not satisfied. Because we want to be able to save everyone and provide access to anyone in need. In the last months, especially the European Union, the UN, the humanitarian agencies have managed to deliver a substantial amount of humanitarian aid and this was simply unbelievable and unconceivable a few months ago. So, we have reached something positive. In the last weeks, we have seen some shortcomings of this; I hope this Group’s meeting today can be helpful to re-energise this process and to give us the possibility to reach the people in need inside Syria.
The European Union is the first humanitarian donor. Together with our Member States we are investing almost 6 billion euros to help the Syrian people inside Syria and in the region. We will continue to do so and, as you might know, we are among the few, the very very few, to have a humanitarian office operating in Damascus as well as one in Gaziantep, on the border with Syria and Turkey to work on the delivery of humanitarian aid. This is our commitment. We will continue to do so and we will continue to support the political process and in particular the work of the UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura as he would reconvene the parties in Geneva to enter into the process of transition. I hope that this meeting today will manage to encourage the parties, the Syrian parties, to enter into these talks with a sense of compromise and in order to find a solution. Thank you!
