Geopolitics

Status quo 'totally unacceptable' in quake-hit, war-ravaged Syria

"The tragic reality is that an effective response was hampered in part by challenges that relate directly to the unresolved issues at the heart of the conflict," the U.N. special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the U.N. Security Council.

, and John Heilprin

February 28, 2023 . 8:40 PM

3 min read

No relief in sight for Syrian after a major earthquake on top of a 12-year-old brutal war (AN/Mahmoud Sulaiman/Unsplash)

The U.N. special envoy to Syria called out the political impasse over the civil war that's long raged and the harm it's done to efforts at coping with the new horrors from the huge earthquakes that hit Syria and Turkey.

Northern Syria suffered widespread destruction and death from a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6 and its aftershocks, after being decimated by 12 years of civil war and its unending diasters and crises.