A regional conference on Iraqi refugees ended Tuesday with an appeal for international assistance to enable host countries to cope with the drain on their resources resulting from the presence of more than two million Iraqis on their soil. ( dpa )
The participants praised the care being accorded to Iraqi refugees by host countries particularly Jordan and Syria, but said the strains were not confined to education and health spheres, but included water, energy and transport infrastructure.
The United States declared during the meeting that it was increasing its annual aid to host countries by 37 million dollars, to 208 million dollars.
The Jordanian government announced recently that the presence of about 500,000 million Iraqis in the country cost the treasury about two billion dollars over the past three years.
However, participants announced that "a real solution" to the problem of Iraqi refugees in neighbouring countries lay in a "political process that leads to a comprehensive national reconciliation in Iraq" and allows Iraqis who fled their country after the US invasion in 2003 to return to their homes.
"Any solution outside Iraq remains a temporary and partial one, barring national reconciliation that involves all components of the Iraqi spectrum and ensures security and an end to terrorism," a final communique said.
The meeting, second of its type in eight months, was attended by representatives for the core working group - Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt - as well as observers from Turkey, Iran, the United Nations and the G-8 group.