© APRukban Refugee Camp
Jordan, Russia and the United States are engaged in talks on finding the resolution on the problem of Syria's Rukban refugee camp, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday.
"Negotiations are underway between Jordan, the United States and Russia with an aim to find a final solution to the problem of the Rukban camp, ensuring the conditions for the voluntary return of its residents to their towns and villages liberated from the Islamic State [terrorist group, banned in Russia]."
Jordan continues to provide medical aid and water to the Syrian refugees residing in the camp, the minister added. However, Safadi underlined that
"the residents of Rukban are Syrians who are residing on the territory of Syria even though Jordan had provided humanitarian aid for them through its territory when there was no other option. The road to Rukban now exists from the Syrian territory, humanitarian aid can be delivered from Syria itself, so ensuring the needs of the camp is the responsibility of Syria and the United Nations, not Jordan."
The Rukban refugee camp, which now hosts about 50,000-60,000 people, is located in Syria's At Tanf district (Homs province) near the Jordanian border, next to a US military base where Syrian opposition forces are being trained. Moscow and Damascus, on one side, and Washington on the other
accuse each other of hindering the delivery of UN humanitarian assistance to the area.Late in September, Jordan's foreign minister told Sputnik that Amman and Moscow are engaged in serious discussions related to the dismantling of the Rukban camp and safe return of its residents to their homes in Syria.
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A UN-Red Cross mission to bring aid to displaced people in the Rukban camp in south Syria was cancelled over lack of security guarantees in the US-controlled area, the Russian military said Saturday.
"The inability of the US side to live up to its commitment to provide security in the 55-kilometer [34-mile] area around its base in At Tanf stopped the convoy from going. UN officials said the delivery had been cancelled over lack of security guarantees," Lt. Gen. Vladimir Savchenko said in a bulletin.
Savchenko said the area around At Tanf was swarming with "a large number of armed and uncontrolled militants who can stage any manner of provocation," making shipments through the zone to the camp on the border with Jordan "extremely dangerous" for aid workers.
Ahmad Qazem, the head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, told Sputnik last week that 14 people had died in the camp because of a dire humanitarian situation. According to the rights activists, the situation in the camp had been complicated by the closure of a nearby border crossing.
The Syrian authorities have repeatedly stated that the territory around At Tanf occupied by the US-led Western coalition was a haven for radical groups, including for militants of the Daesh terrorist group, which organized a large-scale attack on the settlements of the Suwayda province from the side of At Tanf in September.
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