Britain Pledges Extra 52m In Syria Aid

David Cameron holds Syria humanitarian relief talks with G20 world leaders as international tensions continue over the crisis.

新聞背景：

俄羅斯圣彼得堡二十國集團(G20)峰會期間：聯合國秘書長潘基文在晚宴上對各國領導人表示，任何軍事行動都必須得到安理會的支持。

普京表示對敘實施武裝干預將擾亂世界經濟秩序，并稱若敘利亞遭到美國襲擊，俄將會展開援助。

歐洲理事會主席范龍佩在圣彼得堡的記者會上表示，歐盟反對軍事解決敘利亞危機，主張盡快公布敘利亞化學武器問題調查結果。

美國駐聯合國大使薩曼莎·鮑爾（Samantha Power）表明美國政府將放棄在對敘動武上尋求聯合國安理會支持的努力。

It was never going to be an easy chat. But at least as G20 leaders prepared for dinner, Syria was no longer the elephant in the room. It was the centre piece for discussion and debate.

On the key question of prorposed military action, David Cameron has no hand left to play. But he made a decent face of not looking too deflated. While unable to offer active support to Barack Obama, the Prime Minister aimed to buttress his arguments in what proved to be a polite but predictable tabling of entrenched and opposed positions.

“Some people will never be satisfied with...”

“Do you think that includes President Putin? It sounds like he would.”

“I haven’t yet seen any evidence that Russia will change their position at the United Nations. But the best way of doing this, of course, is to have a UN resolution, a condemnation of Syria, a backing for all necessary measures to be taken.”

The hand shake between David Cameron and Vladimir Putin was not the warmest at this summit. The two men don’t see eye to eye on a host of issues. But nor of they yet descended to the arctic level of US-Russia exchanges.

However, remarks attributed to Vladimir Putin spokesman threaten to throw a bit of spanner into the works. It said Dimitri Pescov described Britain as just a small island. No one pays any attention to them.

“The whole story is a bit odd, because one thing we know is that this remark didn’t come from one of the G20 press conference halls. In fact, it wasn’t made in St Petersburg at all. It seems to have from some sort of press briefing earlier on in the week that no one at that time chose to report. Anyway, it is perhaps worth pointing out that the Russian position generally about the British parliamentary vote was that it was great news, because it undermined the move towards the military action.”

The hosts pulled down all the stops with the sound-and-light show stretching into the small hours. After their spectacle, the Russian President found time to meet David Cameron, who once helped to facilitate humanitarian aid in Syria. He’d hoped to be able to forge agreement on such a pressing subject. But given the divisions of the top table, it might be wise not to bet on it. Joy Jones, Sky News, at the G20 in St Petersburg.