Roundup: Syrian problem "worst humanitarian crisis of our times" -- senior UN official

The head of the UN refugee agency said Thursday that the Syrian crisis has become "the worst humanitarian crisis of our times," threatening regional and global peace and security and "risking an explosion that could engulf the entire Middle East."

Both UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres and UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kyung- wha Kang, who is also the deputy UN emergency relief coordinator, painted a grim picture in their humanitarian briefings to the UN Security Council on the conditions facing victims of the Syrian crisis, entering its fifth year.

"In 2013, I said the Syrian war had unleashed the worst humanitarian crisis of our times and posed a terrible threat to regional and global peace and security, risking an explosion that could engulf the entire Middle East," Guterres reminded the 15- nation UN body. "Today, we must face the fact that this is exactly what happened."

Iraq in 2014 saw the most frightening and complete spill-over of an internal conflict into a neighboring country in recent history," he said. "As many as 20,000 foreign fighters from over 50 countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq since 2011, with their number nearly doubling during the course of last year."

"The Syrian refugee crisis has overwhelmed existing response capacities, with 3.8 million registered in the neighboring countries," the high commissioner said. "Lebanon and Jordan have seen their populations grow, in the space of a few years, to a point they were prepared to reach only in several decades. And Turkey has now become the biggest refugee-hosting country in the world."

For her part, Kang highlighted those who either could not or chose not to flee.

"The parties to the conflict continue to kill civilians and target civilians and civilian infrastructure, including vital public services such as water and electricity," she said, adding that such action was "in blatant disregard" of Security Council resolutions and "international humanitarian law, condemning people to further unnecessary suffering."

"Over 2 million people in Aleppo and Dar'a Governorates have been affected by willful denial of water and electricity by parties to the conflict this month," the assistant secretary- general said. "Of the 212,000 people who are besieged, in conditions that deteriorate every day, only 304 were reached with food in January."

"By the end of last year, the Syria Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan for 2014 was just 48 percent funded," she said. "We cannot afford the dire consequences of failing to meet those needs. We can do more, if we have more money to do so."

Also speaking at the Security Council, Lebanonese Ambassador Nawaf Salam said his country was playing host to 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees and 350,000 Palestinian refugees.

"This is about a third of my country's total population," he said, adding that Lebanon was "the smallest country of the region in both geography and population, but it holds the largest number of refugees."

"According to UNHCR, Lebanon is the highest refugee hosting country per capita," Salam said. "It ranks second in the total number if refugees only behind Pakistan whose geographic size and population, respectively, is about 80 and 50 times that of my country."

The economic impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon has been just tremendous," he said. "The World Bank estimated the total loss to Lebanon's economy as a result of this crisis at about 7.5 million U.S. dollars and that was only back in the summer of 2013. "

Meanwhile, New Zealand's UN Ambassador Jim McLay agreed on focusing on the Syrian conflict, especially, "ensuring access of medical and surgical supplies; lifting the siege on 212,000 people; ending the practice of using denial of key services as a weapon of war; rebuilding Syria's education system; and addressing the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including through the use of barrel bombs." Endite