AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan sent about 500 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Syria in the form of food, including flour, canned meat, rice, pasta and tea, the Kazakh foreign ministry said on January 6.

The humanitarian cargo was delivered to the port of Tartus with the assistance of the Russian Federation. Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Jordan Azamat Berdybai handed the humanitarian aid to the Syrian side represented by the Chairman of the Provincial Council of Tartus Yasser Dibb.

The Kazakh humanitarian aid to the needy will be distributed under the supervision of the Higher Relief Commission of the Syrian Arab Republic.

“The humanitarian aid has been provided to Syria in line with the decision of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, given the large-scale humanitarian crisis in the country,” Berdybai said.

This is not the first aid rendered by Kazakhstan to the Syrian people. In 2012, Kazakhstan allocated $400,000 through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the Governments of Jordan and Lebanon to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrians residing in refugee camps.

Also, in October 2015, at the end of negotiations between the representatives of the Syrian opposition in Astana, the sides signed a Memorandum on Kazakhstan providing humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees in the amount of €300,000 for the supply of medicines, food and equipment for refugees based at the Turkish-Syrian border.