Your trusted source

Press TV has conducted an interview with Nasser al-Omari, writer and political commentator, about the UN saying the refugee crisis resulting from the Syrian conflict is the worst since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

- If the United Nations is saying that the Syrian refugee crisis is reaching its height, then why doesn't the United Nations itself do anything about the case?

-Well the claim is that the United Nations represented by the various nations are divided on what needs to be done in Syria. They hinted at political solution to the crisis in Syria as a way to end the humanitarian crisis but we know that the United Nations is truly divided over what should happen in Syria, even aid that goes across the border raises a lot of concerns by the Syrian government as well as the Syrian fighters, the opposition fighters inside Syria.

So this is a very complicated situation and unfortunately the Syrian people about six million of them are suffering a whole lot because of this division in the world community.

- To what extent can the refugee crisis affect the political, economic and social aspect of Syria's neighbors?

- Well, a country like Lebanon for example has been flooded by close to a million Syrians. That is like a country like the United States being flooded by seventy five million people.

So there is no doubt that countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and even Egypt are suffering a great deal because of the problems associated with housing these hundreds of thousands of people, the infrastructure is a problem, the war is a problem, education is a problem and there is no end in sight to the Syrian conflict needless to say the suffering of the Syrian people inside Syria.

- And sir, do you see any political solution in the works not only to the refugee crisis but to the whole crisis in Syria?

Al-Omari: Well politically I believe that the announcement by Britain today or the news of an announcement that they no longer want to pursue arming the rebels the way they did, they tried to do a while ago is an indication that the world sees the balance tipping in favor of the Syrian government and the concern about what some of the elements within Syria are capable of doing if they are better armed based on the videos that have surfaced over the last few months, I think the world has taken a step back and looking closely at who is fighting the Syrian government internally.