Emergency and Disaster Management Minister Raed al-Saleh affirmed Syria's commitment to strengthening its cooperation with Qatar in the fields of search and rescue, disaster response, and elevating it to a long-term strategic partnership.
In an interview with the Qatari news agency "QNA" published today, Monday, al-Saleh expressed Syria's appreciation for Qatar's experience in this field and its achievements in developing specialized teams and training them according to international standards. He expressed his country's aspiration to develop cooperation with Qatar to reach a long-term strategic institutional partnership in capacity building, knowledge transfer, developing training infrastructure, and qualifying Syrian search and rescue teams.
Leveraging Qatari Expertise
Al-Saleh added that Syrian institutions can benefit from this expertise to develop the training and qualification system, establish specialized training facilities, qualify trainers, and implement joint programs and exercises, in addition to exchanging expertise in organizing search and rescue teams and developing their technical and operational capabilities.
He pointed out that field cooperation between the two sides included the participation of a Syrian rescue team, in coordination with the Qatari rescue team, in responding to the earthquake in Venezuela, as well as the support of the Internal Security Force "Lajawiyah" for the Ministry's teams in extinguishing forest fires on the Syrian coast in 2025.
Challenges of Work in Syria and Priorities for Rebuilding the System
The Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management explained that among the most prominent challenges facing the emergency system are the volume of needs compared to available resources, damage to infrastructure and response centers, aging of mechanisms and equipment, the need to develop cadres and technical specialties, enhancing communication, information, and early warning systems, and raising the level of coordination among concerned parties.
He indicated that the Ministry's priorities include rebuilding institutional infrastructure and developing civil defense centers, unifying readiness and operational standards, qualifying cadres and enhancing local capacities in all governorates, in addition to developing the civil defense fleet and securing search and rescue equipment and devices for detecting people under rubble.
Developing Monitoring and Early Warning Systems
Al-Saleh noted that the Ministry is working on developing monitoring, prediction, and analysis capabilities, and enhancing the role of the National Center for Meteorology and specialized technical entities, in addition to developing the (ClimWeb) platform to become a unified national platform for monitoring risks and issuing official warnings, according to the unified international alert protocol (CAP), via mobile phones, media, and digital platforms.
He added that the work includes developing an early warning system based on the expected impact of risks, so that the warning is not limited to predicting natural phenomena, but identifies the areas, populations, and facilities at risk, and the preventive measures to be taken before the disaster occurs.
He clarified that the Ministry is working to establish a unified national mechanism for coordination between ministries, institutions, governorates, technical entities, and field response teams, by defining roles and responsibilities, unifying information exchange procedures and issuing warnings, and linking alert levels to readiness and response plans.
He pointed out cooperation with the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to develop early warning infrastructure, enhance the capabilities of national cadres, and expand coverage to include various governorates and risks, in line with the international initiative "Early Warnings for All" and its four pillars.
The Qatar International Search and Rescue Group, affiliated with the Internal Security Force "Lajawiyah," had contributed to efforts to extinguish forest fires in the Latakia countryside last July, by sending five aircraft carrying special fire-fighting helicopters, fire trucks, and 138 human cadres.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
Comments (0)