Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Wednesday, February 8, 2023

UN calls on Syria to ‘put politics aside’ and facilitate quake aid to rebel-held areas

By AFP 8 February 2023, 5:52 pm Edit

People remove furniture and household appliances out of a collapsed building after a devastating earthquake rocked Syria and Turkey in the town of Jinderis, Aleppo province, Syria, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP/Ghaith Alsayed)

A leading United Nations official calls on quake-hit Syria’s government to facilitate aid access to rebel-held areas in the northwest, warning that relief stocks will soon be depleted.

“Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” the UN’s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih says in an interview with AFP, warning: “We can’t afford to wait and negotiate. By the time we negotiate, it’s done, it’s finished.”