Sweden pledges $35m for Syrian refugees

 Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson said here on Wednesday her country pledged USD 35 million for the Syrian people.Speaking at the Pledging Conference for Syria held here in Kuwait, the minister said since the Syrian crisis broke out, Sweden has donated over USD 100 million for Syria, and has even hosted over 25,000 Syrian asylum-seekers since January 2012.She also unveiled that Sweden would continue supporting development, democracy, human rights and women as part of Syria's reconstruction efforts by a sum of USD 21 million over two years.On his part, Danish Minister of Development Cooperation Christian Friis said his country pledged USD 37 million for the Syrian people this year, hiking up to USD 117 million later as part of international humanitarian aid to Syria.He pointed to another pledge worth USD 18 million for backing a political solution to the Syrian crisis and stability initiatives in Syria.Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz stressed the importance of providing humanitarian aid to refugees inside and outside Syria as a top priority.He said should the Syrian regime deny humanitarian convoys access to the country, then UN resolutions need to be adopted in order to protect humanitarian aid convoys.Turkey hosts over 700,000 Syrian refugees out of a total of 6.5 million refugees, he pointed out.Turkey has hosted a total of over USD 2.5 billion for hosting Syrian refugees, he added.On his part, Finnish Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto announced a pledge of seven million euro for Syrian refugees.Finland provided USD 32 million in humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees and USD five million in development assistance, he said.He urged all parties involved in Syria to respect international humanitarian laws and give humanitarian aid access to violence-hit peo.