Damascus, Sept. 09 (SANA) The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) signed a strategic cooperation agreement to expand their partnership in relief and development fields.
The agreement includes the opening of a QRCS representative office at SARC headquarters in Damascus and provides a legal framework for joint work, the exchange of expertise and information, coordination of humanitarian programmes and projects, and emergency and disaster response.
The agreement was signed by SARC Chairman Dr. Hazem Baqleh and QRCS Chairman Yousef bin Ali Al-Khater, in the presence of Qatar’s Ambassador to Syria Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud Al Sharif, at the Dama Rose Hotel in Damascus.
Baqleh told SANA that Syria is entering a new phase of building and recovery, including the return of people from camps to their homes, support for water and electricity facilities, the health sector and activities related to infrastructure.
He said SARC is working to mobilize resources in cooperation with its international partners, including QRCS, alongside previous agreements with the Turkish Red Crescent and a number of Red Cross societies within the European Union, noting that the impact of these efforts has begun to emerge with people returning to several areas.
Al-Khater said the strategic cooperation agreement reflects the historic ties between the Qatari and Syrian peoples and the understanding between the leaderships of the two countries.
He said the opening of the QRCS office in Damascus is one of the agreement’s key outcomes and will serve as a platform to expand the organisation’s development work in Syria and bring it closer to the Syrian people and their immediate needs.
Al-Khater told SANA that cooperation will cover sanitation, education, shelter and integrated recovery, based on needs assessments and priorities identified in coordination with SARC.
On May 3, Baqleh signed a tripartite agreement with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross mission in Syria Stefan Sakalian and Turkish Red Crescent Director-General for International Affairs and Migration Alper Kucuk to strengthen humanitarian cooperation in raising awareness of the risks posed by remnants of war.
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