UN Chief Guterres wants the role of the Egyptian institutions and Red Crescent 'to be recognized'

AP , Saturday 21 Oct 2023

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Friday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants “the role of the Egyptian Red Crescent and other Egyptian institutions to be recognized,” to ease the impasse that is preventing aid from entering Gaza.

UN Chief
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (C) speaks outside the gate of the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in the east of North Sinai province on October 20, 2023 during a visit there to oversee preparations for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave. Photo: AFP

 

Guterres is working with Egypt, Israel, the United States and others to provide supplies for the besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.N. chief’s priority is to make sure humanitarian aid deliveries are sustained, “with a meaningful number of trucks approved each day to cross” from Egypt into Gaza at the Rafah crossing, Haq said. And the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, must have sufficient fuel to distribute humanitarian aid, Haq said.

“It’s no use dropping off aid to the other side and then leaving it there because their trucks simply don’t have enough fuel to give it to the people who need it,” he said.

The secretary-general has repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire, Haq said, “but he doesn’t want the humanitarian ceasefire to be a condition for allowing the aid in.”

* This story has been edited by Ahram Online

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