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Assad says aid needs to reach all of Syria’s quake-stricken areas — SANA

Powerful 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes rocked Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province in the country’s southeast on February 6, nine hours apart from each other

BEIRUT, February 13. /TASS/. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has met with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, the SANA news agency said on Monday.

According to the report, the officials discussed the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Syria and "what’s needed for the Syrian people to overcome them." The agency said that during the meeting, the Syrian leader "stressed the need for immediate delivery of assistance to all [disaster-affected] regions of Syria, including those that are occupied and under the control of armed terrorist groups." Assad also pointed to the "importance of international efforts aimed at assisting in the reconstruction of infrastructure in Syria, as this is an urgent necessity" for the improvement of the lives of ordinary Syrians and the return of Syrian refugees, who fled the war, to their homeland.

For his part, Griffiths assured that the UN is taking measures to provide assistance and meet the humanitarian needs of Syrians after the earthquake.

Powerful 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes rocked Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province in the country’s southeast on February 6, nine hours apart from each other. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in 10 provinces as well as in neighboring countries, of which Syria was hardest hit.