The U.N. refugee agency and senior government ministers from Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon-countries which together host more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees-called Wednesday on the international community to "overcome differences" to stop the fighting in Syria and made an urgent appeal for expanded assistance to the region. "We are facing the dramatic escalation of the Syrian conflict, namely with the use of chemical weapons," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a joint statement with the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan, and the social-affairs minister of Lebanon. "We strongly appeal to the international community to overcome existing differences and come together to stop the fighting. All actions that are creating refugee flows need to cease," the joint statement said. A political solution to end the cycle of violence is "urgently needed," Guterres and the ministers said. "There is no humanitarian solution to the Syrian crisis; rather, there needs to be a political solution that ends the humanitarian crisis." The joint statement followed a half-day meeting in Geneva chaired by Guterres with representatives of the four countries that host the majority of the 2 million refugees who have fled Syria since early 2011. An additional 4.25 million people are displaced within Syria, according to recent U.N. figures. "Our central message is these countries need and deserve massive support from the international community, and that support is not yet there, and it is essential to have a shift in the way the international community is handling that support," Guterres told reporters at a joint news conference.
