Jordan seeks to hold a meeting at UN

Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury said Saturday that Jordan is currently seeking to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly, to follow up on the international pledges made at the conferences of London and Brussels on Syria and neighbouring countries.

In a press release, Fakhoury said that the meeting, which will be held upon Jordan’s request, aims to follow up on donor countries’ fulfillment of their pledges to maintain the momentum of aid, given that most of the aid is usually delivered during the last quarter of the year.

He stressed that the government is following up on the issue with all donor countries and UN organizations, calling on the international community to honour its pledges and realise the targeted amount of support for 2017.

Jordan has presented a report to the UN on its needs within the Jordan Response Plan (JRP) to deal with the repercussions of hosting 1.3 billion Syrian refugees, according to the statement.

With regard to the total foreign aid contracted by Jordan in 2016, Fakhoury said that it amounted to a total of $3.16 billion, of which $2.55 billion was in development aid split up into regular grants of $597.2 million, soft loans of $923.6 million and additional grants worth $1.65 billion to support the JRP (support for the budget and support of host communities and support for refugees).

He said that the additional grants, $1.65 billion, accounted for about 62 per cent of the funding requirements for the same year, which were, according to the plan, $615.1 million additional grants to support Syrian refugees and $646.7 million additional grants to boost the resilience of Syrian refugees host communities, as well as $385 million additional grants to support the Treasury.

Source: Fana News