Paris — The French Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it will transfer up to $12.8 million to different UN agencies and nongovernmental groups for humanitarian aid for Syria in all the regions impacted by the earthquakes. Though it has sent a delegation to Turkey, France had not sent any rescue teams to Syria and is not planning to do so.

The French aid will be divided into three categories. The first payment of 5 million euros is set to go to the Syria Cross-border Humanitarian Fund, a multi-donor group established eight years ago following a UN Security Council resolution. Up to 5 million euros will be divided between several French aid groups working in emergency response in the domains of health, shelter, water, hygiene and food security. Another 2 million euros will apparently go toward food supplies. The channel for this latest contribution is still being discussed.

Assisting earthquake-stricken Syria presents both technical and political problems for France and for other EU member states. The EU imposed sanctions on Syria in 2011, targeting companies and prominent businesspeople, limiting importations of oil and freezing the assets of the Syrian Central Bank held on European soil. European sanctions on Syria were extended last May until June 1, 2023. Paris closed its embassy in Damascus and its consulate in Aleppo in 2012 over massacres committed by the regime. Damascus has kept its embassy in Paris open.

While Paris has been involved in European and international aid to Syria in the framework of the so-called "small group" made of France, Egypt, the United States, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Germany and Saudi Arabia since 2018, France has reiterated on several occasions its position against restoring diplomatic ties with Damascus under the current circumstances. Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen suggested the resumption of diplomatic relations during her 2022 election campaign, but her proposal was rejected by French President Emmanuel Macron.