The U.S. on Thursday pledged almost $1 billion more in humanitarian aid to help Syrian refugees after five years of civil war under the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Of that new total, $600 million is for direct humanitarian aid, and $325 million will be in the form off development assistance. The bulk of the development chunk is earmarked for educating Syrian children living inside Jordan and Lebanon.
The commitment Secretary of State John Kerry made at a donor conference in London brings the United States’ total contribution to more than $4.5 billion since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.
The European Union has pledged $3.3 billion; Germany, $2.6 billion; and Great Britain, Kingdom $1.75 billion.
Civilians caught in the conflict’s crosshairs “are reduced to eating grass and leaves and killing stray animals in order to survive on a day-to-day basis,” Kerry said on Thursday from London. “That is something that should tear at the conscience of all civilized people; and we all have a responsibility to respond to it.”
President Obama is convening a refugee summit at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. Before then, the Obama administration is asking the international community to up is donations by 30 percent, Kerry said.
“We urge at least 10 countries to make pledges that have never made pledges before,” Kerry said. “We urge 10 nations to open their doors to refugee admissions that have not done so in the past.”
Kerry said helping refugees monetarily is only part of the solution to bringing peace and stability to Syria.
“[T]he challenge is to not just write a check every other year to increase refugee” aid, he said. “It’s to stop the flow of refugees; it’s to end the war.”
Kerry reminded the warring parties that although the peace talks in Geneva are paused, all sides must abide by the terms they agreed to that are spelled out in a United Nations resolution adopted in December. That includes allowing for the flow of humanitarian assistance and not attacking or shelling civilians or civilian facilities, such as hospitals.
“That is mandatory,” Kerry said. “That is the basis of these talks.”
Kerry previously said that less than 1 percent of international humanitarian aid to the region actually reached people last year.
Kerry said he spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday about implementing a ceasefire. But White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Thursday blamed Assad and Russia for the breakdown in peace talks.
“I mostly blame the Assad regime” but also those who are helping it, primarily Russia, Earnest said.
Russia is helping Assad bear down on the key city of Aleppo, which opposition groups have cited for breaking off talks.
“Russia, in part because of the military support they are offering the Assad regime and we’ve been pretty blunt in asking Russia” to bring Assad to the table, Earnest said. A good first step would be Moscow convincing Damascus to stop bombing civilians, he said.
