In his weekly statement regarding the recent developments in the world, Şehzade Demir also made important observations on the UN’s call for Yemen and Syria, the meeting on Syria in the Astana format in Sochi.

“The zionist regime is committing a crime against humanity by denying equal COVID-19 vaccine access to Palestinians”

“The Secretary-General of the United Nations stated that the distribution of vaccines developed against coronavirus in the world is not equal and fair, 75 percent of the vaccine doses produced are distributed among only 10 countries, and that not a single dose of vaccine has reached 130 countries so far,” Demir said, noting that one of the countries that did not receive the vaccine is Gaza, which has been under the zionist blockade for years.

Drawing attention to the zionist regime's deliberate denial of access to vaccines to the Palestinians, Demir continued his remarks as follows: “The Palestinian Minister of Health announced that the Zionist regime prevented the 2,000 doses of vaccine supplied to healthcare workers in Gaza from entering the Gaza Strip. The Zionist regime blocking vaccines is a crime against humanity. It is against all international laws and conventions. The UN, WHO and other international organizations should take urgent action to ensure COVID-19 vaccine access to Gaza.”

UN's call for Yemen and Syria

“In Yemen and Syria, where civil war has been going on for years, the humanitarian disaster is deepening with each passing day,” Demir warned and added: “The UN announced that 400,000 children under the age of 5 are in danger of hunger in Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world. As in Yemen, the people who survived the massacres in Syria lose their lives due to illness, hunger, and cold as a result of the inability to deliver humanitarian aid.”

Demir underlined that civilians who survived the massacre were almost sentenced to death with embargoes in Syria and Yemen.

“The civil wars in Yemen and Syria that have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people for years have demonstrated that there is no military solution for the conflicts. The countries in the region, which cannot put forward a common will for the solution of the crises, on the contrary, follow policies that deepen the war, are responsible for the humanitarian tragedy. In order to prevent the deaths of civilians in both countries, a ceasefire should be declared immediately, humanitarian aid should be delivered to every region and political solution efforts should be increased.”

The meeting on Syria in the Astana format in Sochi

Noting that the fifteenth of the high-level meetings on Syria in Astana format was held in Sochi, Russian Federation, on February 16-17, 2021, Demir said: “As a result of the meeting, a joint statement was issued to fulfill all agreements regarding the Idlib De-Escalation Zone, emphasize the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, support the safe return of refugees with the constitutional writing and reform process. However, the process carried out by guarantors until now has been limited to statements. Unfortunately, there has been no success in putting the statements in the agreement texts into practice in the field.”

Demir emphasized that it is not possible to achieve a political solution to the Syrian conflict as long as the guarantor countries continue to provide political and logistical support for the warring parties in the field.

“For this reason, as a requirement of the guarantorship, the guarantor countries should start a peace process by declaring a permanent ceasefire in Syria in order to ensure the safe return of refugees. Otherwise, the civil war that has been going on for 10 years will continue to claim the lives of innocent civilians,” Demir concluded.