KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Funds raised to help with the humanitarian crisis in Syria mean nothing unless the regime of Bashar Assad does its part, the U.S. secretary of state said.
Members of the international community met Wednesday in Kuwait for a donor's conference for Syria. The British and European governments made financial commitments this week and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said his government was coming forward with $380 million in assistance.
"None of this will matter unless the money goes to the people who need it," he said in a statement. "And this will only change the situation on the ground if the Assad regime stops blocking aid workers from reaching besieged communities and stops using starvation as a weapon of war."
Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, visited Damascus last week to press for greater access to the Syrian communities most impacted by the violence. ICRC and Red Crescent Society workers have been targeted and killed during Syria's civil war.
Justine Greening, British secretary of state for international development, said the scale of suffering in Syria was hard to comprehend.
Greening said in 2013 there were around 515,000 Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries. That figure has now passed 2.4 million.
"The world cannot ignore what is happening to the Syrian people," she said from Kuwait.
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