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The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, has again strongly condemned the ongoing attacks against civilians in eastern Aleppo and called for the immediate safe evacuation of the besieged civilian population in the city.

He stated:

“The proposed evacuation plan for the besieged population in eastern Aleppo must be immediately implemented. The absolute priority now must be safe passage for people and for supplies.

"Eastern Aleppo has been denied essential humanitarian supplies since summer 2016 by the Assad regime and its allies, denying the population access to basic food and medicines, while they suffer under a massive military assault.

"There must be accountability for violations of international humanitarian law and for war crimes.

"The people of Syria rose up in 2011 in pursuit of their liberty and dignity. The response of the Assad regime has been brutal and must be condemned. The cost to the Syrian people has been incalculable and intolerable. Bashar al Assad and his regime must be held accountable for their actions. I have repeatedly said that Ireland does not recognise the legitimacy of the Syrian Presidential elections of 2014, which were a clear abuse of all recognised democratic norms, as has every national election in Syria since the coming to power of the Assad regime.

“On Monday I pledged a further €5M in humanitarian support to the Syrian people. The enormity of the Syrian crisis has been met by an unprecedented level of humanitarian support from the Irish people and the Government. Ireland has provided €25M in humanitarian support to the Syrian people in 2016 alone and €67M since 2012. We remain fully committed to supporting the victims of this conflict.

"I wish to recognise the extraordinary level of concern demonstrated by the Irish public in response to the Syrian crisis and the horrific events in Aleppo in particular. I would like to thank those who contacted my office and my Department directly.

"Ireland continues to urgently press, through all available diplomatic, legal and political channels, for an end to the suffering of the Syrian people at the hands of the Assad regime.”