Syria’s new rulers eager to work with UN on delivering humanitarian aid

The new UN humanitarian chief says Syria’s rebel-led government is committed to “an ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support” to help the 17 million Syrians in need of food and other aid. The flow of aid into the war-torn country was interrupted this month by the chaos surrounding the sudden overthrow of president Bashar Al Assad by rebels. Tom Fletcher said the UN has received assurances that Syria’s new leaders will help with the movement of aid and humanitarian personnel from neighbouring countries including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq “for as long as humanitarian operations are required,” including across still-active conflict lines.