GENEVA, Feb 15: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi extolled Kuwait for its rapid response to the humanitarian needs of the victims of the recent earthquake in Turkiye and Syria. Grandi met with Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva Ambassador Nasser Al-Hayen on Wednesday. During the meeting, Grandi expressed gratitude to Kuwait's political leadership, which spared no effort in directing support for all relief efforts to deal with the crisis, calling for strengthening those efforts.

In a statement to KUNA, Al-Hayen said after the meeting that the meeting discussed Kuwait's rapid response provided to the Turkish and Syrian people and what Kuwait is doing in this regard to mitigate the unprecedented catastrophic effects of the earthquake. He explained that based on the instructions of the political leadership of Kuwait, he contacted all international organizations working in the relief and humanitarian field to learn about their programs in dealing with this disaster.

Kuwait will not hesitate to make every effort to rescue the victims in both countries, he underscored, expressing Kuwait's sincere condolences to the victims while wishing a speedy recovery for the injured. An earthquake hit southern Turkiye and northern Syria at dawn on February 6, with a magnitude of 7.7, followed by another hours later with a magnitude of 7.6 and hundreds of violent aftershocks, which caused huge losses of lives and properties in both countries. (KUNA)