DUBAI, January 30 (RIA Novosti) – The leaders of Lebanon and Jordan said on Wednesday their countries were unable to handle the inflow of refugees from the neighboring Syria, and asked for help from the international community.
Addressing a United Nations-sponsored international donor conference on Syria, Jordan King Abdallah II said that his country currently hosts and helps hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
“This exceeds Jordan's capabilities. We will submit a document on the necessary financial and logistical assistance for Syrian refugees in Jordan,” King Abdallah II told participants of the conference, which opened in Kuwait on Wednesday.
The conference, which drew the representatives of 59 countries and 13 global organizations, was summoned following an appeal from the United Nations on December 19 to gather $1.5 billion for humanitarian needs to save Syrian lives.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman echoed the Jordanian leader's position, saying that his small country's capabilities have been exhausted, but Syrian refugees keep on coming.
“Despite all this, the Lebanese government is not closing the country’s borders and keeps receiving Syrian and Palestinian refugees,” Suleiman said.
The Lebanese leader called on other Arab states to help not only financially, but also to give shelter to those fleeing the ongoing bloody conflict in Syria.
According to UN estimates, the nearly two-year-long armed conflict in Syria forced some 650,000 people to seek refuge in other countries. In addition, a statement from the UN World Food Program earlier in January said that some 2.5 million people in Syria were in need of food supplies.
Syria has been engulfed in a bloody civil war between various opposition forces and Bashar Assad's government troops since March 2011. The UN estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed so far.
