Violence continued unabated in Syria on Thursday as fierce clashes and
shelling rocked the northern regions of Aleppo while opposition fighters
attacked pro-regime checkpoints and gathering points, according to the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The observatory earlier
reported that Wednesday recorded the highest daily death toll yet
throughout the 18-month long crisis, with over 305 deaths.
Separately, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday that the number of refugees fleeing Syria could reach 700,000 by the end of the year, far surpassing its previous forecast of 185,000 reached in August.
About 294,000 Syrian refugees fleeing 18 months of conflict in their homeland have already crossed into four neighboring countries - Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey - or await registration there, it said.
"This plan provides for up to 700,000," Panos Moumtzis, regional refugee coordinator for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, told a news briefing.
Positions
In international
positions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Tehran is
seeking to establish a new contact group on Syria, adding that “through
national dialogue and consensus, rival parties in Syria can reach a permanent
solution.”
Ahmadinejad refused to name the countries that Iran invited
to join the contact group, hoping that the Iranian Foreign Ministry will do so
in the next few days.
The Iranian President warned countries against armed involvement
in the ongoing conflict in Syria during a news conference held after he
addressed the United Nations General Assembly on
Wednesday.
In turn, the European Commissioner for
Humanitarian and International Cooperation Kristalina Georgieva called for opening corridors to
allow humanitarian agencies and organizations access to Syrian civilians in
need especially with winter approaching.
"With no end to the fighting
in sight, with serious food and medicine shortages, and with the winter
approaching, it was high time to discuss at the highest possible level what the
needs are and how we can bring help to people who need it," she said after talks on the issue with heads of U.N. and other
international aid agencies at the U.N. General Assembly in New York
The European
Union provided $287 million for humanitarian efforts in Syria, Georgieva said,
but only 38 percent of a U.N. funding appeal has been met.
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “they [West countries] have
already created a situation of chaos in many territories and are now continuing
the same policy in other countries -- including Syria”, according to Reuters.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI