Geneva: The new head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday he has received positive commitments from Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus, but stressed the promises needed to be tested in coming weeks.
Peter Maurer, who has just returned from a three-day visit to Syria, told reporters in Geneva that his meetings with Al Assad and other Syrian government officials had been “positive.”
“I had a sober, to the point discussion focused on humanitarian issues, and the president, during the conversation I had with him, showed his commitment to work on many of the points I brought forward to him as obstacles to the work of the ICRC,” he said.
Describing his “shock” at the destruction he witnessed in Syria and the severe difficulty in distributing aid in the country, Maurer stressed that Assad and other officials had among other things agreed “on facilitating and lowering administrative hurdles on humanitarian imports.”
