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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The United Nations Security Council has again stated its deep appreciation for the significant efforts in accommodating Syrian refugees that have been made by the countries of the region, particularly Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

In closed consultations held Friday evening, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, briefed the council on the situation in the war-torn country, recognizing the immense costs and multifaceted challenges incurred by these countries as a consequence of the crisis.

In a statement read aloud by Jordan's permanent envoy at the UN, Dina Kewar, who is the current president of the body, the Council expressed its deep concern over the social, demographic, environmental and economic effects of the prolonged crisis on Syria’s neighboring countries, including the strain on their educational systems.

The Security Council stressed the importance of providing humanitarian and development funding to assist in the refugee crisis, assuring support for national response plans, addressing the humanitarian needs of refugees, in particular women and children, both in camps and urban areas and through capacity-building and technical support, and strengthening the resilience of host countries and communities as components of stabilizing the region.

Further, the statement noted that the humanitarian situation would continue to deteriorate in the absence of peace, and the Council reiterated its demand for an immediate end to the fighting and its full support to the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria in efforts to foster a Syrian-led political solution.

Additionally, the Council expressed deep concern over the lack of progress in reaching a settlement of the Syrian conflict, calling it the world’s largest humanitarian emergency.

The international community has a responsibility to keep the crisis from dragging on, and the Syrian people must be allowed to freely and democratically choose their future, the statement added.