Syrian refugees get additional $100M US aid

The United States will provide an additional $100 million in humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry formally announced Thursday in Rome.

With the $25 million committed two weeks ago by Washington, U.S. assistance to the Syrian people now amounts to $510 million, according to a fact sheet released by the State Department prior to the official announcement.

The fact sheet said the United States firmly supports all countries hosting Syrian refugees and despite the “significant strains” the crisis is provoking among their local populations, asks them to keep the borders open to civilians fleeing the violence in Syria.

The $100 million will go to several U.N. agencies — the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — working both inside the country and “as part of the regional refugee response in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.”

Of the total funding, the lion’s share ($43 million) is earmarked for activities in Jordan, where a new refugee center for up to 50,000 Syrians is being planned, while $32 million will go to Lebanon, $9.5 million to Turkey and the remaining $16.5 million to the response inside Syria.

U.N agencies working in Syria like the World Food Program — which will not benefit from the $100 million — or UNHCR were close to a ”breaking point” and a few weeks ago almost decided to shut down their operations inside the country due to lack of financing from donors, before Qatar poured in $110 million and other donors like Australia followed suit.

This time, U.S. assistance will not go to financing the rebels fighting to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Kerry made the announcement after meeting on Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Both countries are leading a diplomacy drive to bring the Syrian regime and the rebels to the negotiating table in a conference to be held next month with the goal of seeking a political solution to the three-year conflict in the country.

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