The UN commissioner said the number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries — Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey — is 3 million; some 2.3 million of whom are registered with the UN refugee agency, with additional 6.5 million displaced in their country.
“The situation in Syria will not be solved in the near future,” he said, adding that as for the possible creation of safe zones in the country itself, “I am rather sceptical about the possibility of doing this in the near future. This would require a decision of the Security Council, and we are aware that the Security Council is not a body where these decisions are easily taken and it would require a massive security presence from the outside, so I am not convinced that thing will happen in the near future.”
Responding to questions related to Jordan’s rejection to allow the entry of a number of Syrians through the Queen Alia International Airport, the official said: “If someone is in a country where that person can be protected, and if that person moved from that country to another, the second country is not forced to host him.”
