About the Author: Anne C. Richard serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration.

The recent visits of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and actress/director and Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Angelina Jolie to the Za’atri camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan drew attention to the plight of the refugees, and will hopefully increase support by individual and government donors to aid programs. But focusing on refugee camps shows only one aspect of life in exile. Of the half million Syrian refugees, some two-thirds live in cities and villages and not in refugee camps.

I traveled in late November to Jordan and Lebanon and met five families who had fled the violence in Syria and were trying to survive as refugees outside of camps.

In Amman, we were welcomed by two Syrian brothers who had married two sisters. One couple had five children. The other couple was expecting their first child. I asked how… more »

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns delivers remarks on the Syrian Opposition Council during a press conference in Marrakech, Morocco on December 12, 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/s/d/2012/201945.htm.

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
December 12, 2012

Today, Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns announced the United States is providing nearly $14 million in additional humanitarian aid that will provide nutrition support for children, as well as additional emergency medical and winterization supplies to families in need inside Syria. With this new assistance, the United States is providing $210 million in humanitarian assistance to help over 1.5 million people inside Syria and the hundreds of thousands who have fled to neighboring countries.

This new assistance will provide a monthly ration of highly-fortified, ready-to-use food supplements to help approximately 225,000 children in Syria. These supplements are specially formulated for young children between 6 and 24 months of age and provide all the vitamins and minerals required for their development. To further increase medical capacity in Syria, this additional aid also includes essential medicines and supplies for 150,000 people and specialized drugs and supplies for 3,000 surgical interventions. We are also supporting the Early Warning Alert and Response System, a medical surveillance system that allows early detection and timely response to epidemics of communicable diseases. The United States is already working to reach 375,000 people in Syria with critical, life-saving winterization supplies, and this new funding will provide heavy-duty plastic insulation, duct tape, blankets, mattresses, rubber boots, and woolen socks to help an additional 45,000 people with winterization needs.

The United States, along with the international community, is working tirelessly to ensure that the innocent children, women, and men affected by the conflict in Syria are provided with life-saving assistance, and we will continue to stand by them in their time of need. The United States acknowledges the extraordinary efforts of Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq to keep borders open and generously hosting and providing assistance to those fleeing Asad’s brutality.

For more detailed information on the U.S. government’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, please visit:http://www.usaid.gov/crisis/syria.

Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), travels to Turkey to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria and assistance for those affected by the crisis, November 2012. A text transcript can be found at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/usaid/201164.htm.

Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), travels to Turkey to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria and assistance for those affected by the crisis, November 2012.

In a recent opinion piece for The Daily Beast, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and Ambassador Peter Westmacott, the U.K.’s Ambassador to the United States, addressed the use of sexual assault as a weapon. The text of their opinion piece, which appeared on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, appears below.

“Nearly 40,000 people have died already in Syria’s civil war, and close to 100 are still being killed each day. Homes, hospitals, water infrastructure, and sanitation systems have been destroyed. But one element of this ongoing brutality has been largely overlooked in the media: the appalling sexual violence being visited on the Syrian people by government and militia forces. Such use of sexual violence as a tactic…more »

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
November 14, 2012

Today Secretary Clinton announced that the United States is providing $30 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help those affected by the conflict in Syria.

With this new assistance, the United States is providing nearly $200 million in humanitarian aid to help those suffering as a result of the Assad regime’s violence inside Syria and in neighboring countries.

In Syria, this funding will allow for the immediate procurement of food in local and regional markets to provide family food baskets to those in need, which contain vital necessities such as rice, beans, and cooking oil. In neighboring countries, this additional assistance from the United States will provide food supplies, hot meals, and food vouchers for families who have fled the violence in Syria. This additional assistance will be provided through the World Food Program (WFP), which is providing food aid to 1.5 million people in Syria and the refugees who have fled to neighboring countries. The United States is the largest donor of food aid for those affected by the conflict in Syria through WFP.

The United States is providing food aid, medical supplies, emergency and basic health care, shelter materials, clean water, hygiene education and supplies, and other relief supplies - including blankets and heaters - to help more than one million people inside Syria and the nearly 400,000 refugees in neighboring countries.

The United States, along with the international community, is tirelessly working to provide humanitarian assistance to the innocent children, women, and men affected by the conflict in Syria, and we will continue to stand by them in their time of need.

For more detailed information on the U.S. Government’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, please visit:http://www.usaid.gov/crisis/syria.

Press Statement
Victoria Nuland
Department Spokesperson
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
November 8, 2012

Today, the U.S. Department of State reported to the Congress the designations of four Iranian individuals and five Iranian entities for having engaged in censorship or other activities that prohibit, limit, or penalize freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran, or that limit access to print or broadcast media, including by jamming international satellite broadcasts into Iran, and related activities. These actions were taken pursuant to Section 403 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, signed by the President on August 10, 2012, and Executive Order 13628, which the President signed into effect on October 9, 2012. As a result of this action, U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions involving the designated individuals or entities, and all designated individuals and members of designated entities are subject to a ban on travel to the United States. This action also blocks, or freezes, the property and interests in property of designated individuals or entities.

These actions underscore the Administration’s ongoing commitment to hold Iranian government officials and entities responsible for the abuses carried out against their own citizens. Those designated today include Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Reza Taghipour, who has been found responsible for ordering the jamming of satellite television broadcasts and restricting internet connectivity. Also sanctioned are Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and its Press Supervisory Board, which have limited freedom of expression through their censorship and closure of numerous newspapers and detention of journalists. In addition, we are designating key individuals and entities responsible for assisting the regime in its crackdown on and censorship of the Iranian people.

Such abuses demonstrate the Iranian Government’s ongoing campaign to censor its own citizens, curtail their freedoms, and to prevent the free flow of information both in to and out of Iran. Countless activists, journalists, lawyers, students, and artists have been detained, censured, tortured, or forcibly prevented from exercising their human rights. With the measures we are taking today, we draw the world’s attention to the scope of the regime’s insidious actions, which oppress its own people and violate Iran’s own laws and international obligations. We will continue to stand with the Iranian people in their quest to protect their dignity and freedoms and prevent the Iranian Government from creating an “electronic curtain” to cut Iranian citizens off from the rest of the world.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosts the Ad Hoc Friends of the Syrian People Ministerial, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, September 28, 2012. You can read the Secretary’s remarks at the meeting here. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks at the Ad Hoc Friends of the Syrian People Ministerial in New York, New York on September 27, 2012. A text transcript can be found athttp://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/09/198455.htm.