Red Cross head had 'positive' talks with Assad
by AP
,
posted Sep 7 2012 6:51AM
|
GENEVA (AP) - The new president of the Red Cross says he held "positive" talks with Syria's president this week to gain access to detainees and free up deliveries of badly needed aid.
Peter Maurer, president of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, says his talks with Bashar Assad were "sober, to the point" and "clearly focused on humanitarian needs," such as freeing up deliveries of food, medicine and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of people.
Maurer told reporters Friday in Geneva that he also visited rural areas around Damascus where residents told him "horrific accounts of armed attacks" and left him shocked at the "extreme violence."
|
