Thank you Mr. President,

I would also like to thank Special Envoy Pedersen and Director Doughten for their briefings.

The earthquakes in February worsened the humanitarian situation in Syria.

This catastrophe demonstrated once again the urgency of the settlement of the conflict with its all dimensions.

Since the beginning, Türkiye has advocated that a lasting solution can only be found through a political process that addresses, in line with the Security Council Resolution 2254, the fundamental issues underpinning the conflict.

The ongoing deadlock in the political process compounds the gravity of the situation on the ground and increases the prevalent sense of despair.

Mr. President,

Türkiye’s long-standing priorities in Syria are clear and consistent:

- Overcoming the deadlock in the political process,

- Combating terrorism and preservation of territorial integrity and political unity of Syria.

- Facilitation of uninterrupted humanitarian access, and

- Creating conditions conducive for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees.

Quadrilateral meetings that we have launched in Moscow are aimed at realizing these priorities, through a process without preconditions and in a result-oriented manner.

In the aftermath of the earthquakes, we are witnessing the signs of a tendency towards greater engagement in the region. We think that every initiative is important and valuable as far as it is part and parcel of a holistic and coordinated approach to find viable solutions to the existing problems through a credible political process. In this connection, I would like to underline once again the need for increased alignment of the positions of all main stakeholders.

Mr. President,

The UN cross-border assistance mechanism remains a vital life-line for millions of Syrians and an indispensable modality for meeting the increasing humanitarian needs in this country. In the aftermath of the earthquakes, its functionality has become all the more important.

The operationalization of two additional border crossings, namely Bab al-Salame and Al Ra’ee, for the delivery of humanitarian aid has proven to be useful in terms of expanding the scope of the cross-border humanitarian response.

We call on the international community, including the UN, donors, implementing partners and NGOs to make better use of all these border crossings in order to scale up the desperately needed humanitarian aid.

In this connection, I would like to emphasize the importance of the extension of the mandate of the cross-border mechanism in such a way to ensure predictability and reliability to donors and implementing partners. This step would also facilitate more effective implementation of early recovery and resilience projects, which, in medium to long term, could help mitigate the overall humanitarian grievances.

Similarly, we support the delivery of cross-line assistance inside Syria in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2672; and we continue to encourage all relevant parties to carry out these activities on a regular basis.

Mr. President,

The disasters that befell Türkiye and Syria might have a silver lining, if the cooperation in the humanitarian dimension could also help create a renewed political momentum for the settlement of the Syrian crisis.

We hope that this can open a window of opportunity and it can be seized by all stakeholders.

Thank you.