Jordan’s Foreign Minister Visits Syria in First Trip Since War

An aerial view shows people walking near collapsed buildings following last week's earthquake in Syria's opposition-held village of Atarib, in the northwestern Aleppo province, on February 14, 2023. (AFP)
An aerial view shows people walking near collapsed buildings following last week's earthquake in Syria's opposition-held village of Atarib, in the northwestern Aleppo province, on February 14, 2023. (AFP)
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Jordan’s Foreign Minister Visits Syria in First Trip Since War

An aerial view shows people walking near collapsed buildings following last week's earthquake in Syria's opposition-held village of Atarib, in the northwestern Aleppo province, on February 14, 2023. (AFP)
An aerial view shows people walking near collapsed buildings following last week's earthquake in Syria's opposition-held village of Atarib, in the northwestern Aleppo province, on February 14, 2023. (AFP)

Jordan's foreign minister Ayman Safadi arrived in Damascus on Wednesday in the first such visit since the Syrian conflict and will later head to Türkiye to show "solidarity" after the quake, an official source said.

The visit will focus on humanitarian needs and how Jordan, a neighbor that hosts tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, can help in ongoing relief operations, the source said.

"Safadi will discuss the humanitarian and aid needs that the two countries need," a statement from the foreign ministry said, adding that aid planes will fly to both countries on Wednesday.

Jordan has sent large shipments of aid to both countries with the kingdom sending a medical hospital to Türkiye and organizing several large flights and aid convoys through the country's northern border crossing with Syria.

Relations between the neighbors have been strained in recent years.

Jordan has criticized Damascus for failing to curb multi-billion-dollar drug smuggling operations through its borders that Amman blames on Iranian-backed militias who hold sway in southern Syria.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.