MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The time frame for the allocation of financial aid to Syria was not discussed during the Syria Donors Conference in Brussels on April 4-5, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Sputnik on Thursday.
"Unfortunately, the time frames of allocating the first or the other tranches were not discussed. Yes, after the conference the financial aid for the Syrians worth $6 billion was announced, but we need to be rational and consider the fact that … after all the previous similar conferences that took place in London and Kuwait huge sums of money were announced as well to be used to help the Syrian people, but in practice too small a part of that money was used for humanitarian aid for the Syrian population," Gatilov said.
Gatilov added that another important issue that Russia drew attention to during the conference was that the fact that humanitarian aid must be distributed evenly among the entire Syrian population rather than focused only on those living in territories currently under control of radical Islamists.
In February 2016, the London Donors Conference raised over $11 billion for Syrian humanitarian needs for the next four years, while an additional $40 billion in loans was pledged.
In 2013, 2014 and 2015, Kuwait hosted three pledging conferences for the United Nation’s Syria appeals, raising $1.5 billion, $2.4 billion, and $3.8 billion, respectively.
