The rescue phase following the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on February 6 is "coming to a close" with urgency now switching to providing shelter and food to survivors, United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said during a visit to Aleppo on Monday. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked for international aid for reconstruction at a meeting with Griffiths as the total death toll surpassed 35,000. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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10:21pm: Syria's Assad agrees to open two border crossings for quake aid, says UN chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed to open two more border crossings to allow in aid to help victims of the earthquake that has left more than 35,000 dead across the region.
"Opening these crossing points – along with facilitating humanitarian access, accelerating visa approvals and easing travel between hubs – will allow more aid to go in, faster," said Guterres.
8:23pm: Syria earthquake death toll now at 2,274, rescue group says
The Syrian White Helmets rescue group said on Monday the latest earthquake death toll in northwest Syria stood now at 2,274 deaths.
6:37pm: Syria's Assad urges UN for help rebuilding after quake
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Monday for international aid for reconstruction in the quake-struck country during a meeting with United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths, the presidency said.
After more than a decade of war, Assad's government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international efforts to assist those affected by the quake.
Assad "stressed the importance of international efforts focused on helping to rebuild infrastructure in Syria," the statement said.
Aid has been slow to arrive in Syria, where nearly 12 years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling Assad's government.
On Sunday, the head of the World Health Organization also met Assad and said that he had voiced openness to more border crossings for aid to be brought to quake victims in the country's rebel-held northwest.
5:23pm: UN Security Council meets to discuss boosting aid to northwest Syria
The UN Security Council meets behind closed doors Monday to address ways to boost humanitarian assistance to Syria following the devastating recent earthquake, amid growing calls to open new border crossings to deliver aid.
The meeting requested by Switzerland and Brazil – the United Nations co-leaders on the Syria humanitarian file –will feature a presentation to council members by UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths, who this weekend visited Turkey and Syria where anger over the pace of aid has swelled.
"We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria," Griffiths said Sunday on Twitter, adding that it was the international community's obligation "to correct this failure as fast as we can."
Before the earthquake struck, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in rebel-controlled areas of northwestern Syria was being delivered from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
Aid delivery through Bab al-Hawa was interrupted by the quake but has since resumed, and calls to open other crossings are multiplying.
2:59pm: Turkey won't allow new Syrian refugee influx after quakes, minister says
Turkey will not allow a new influx of refugees from Syria after last week's devastating earthquakes, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.
"Claims that there is a new influx of refugees from Syria to Turkey (after the earthquakes) are not true. We will not allow that; it is out of question," Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Ankara.
Cavusoglu was commenting on claims that Syrians were flooding into Turkey following last Monday's earthquakes that caused tens of thousands of deaths in the two countries.
Humanitarian aid to Syria's rebel-held areas is being delivered through the Bab al Hawa border crossing, and Turkey is ready to open two new border crossings from Kilis province after the quakes, Cavusoglu said.
"All of these border crossings are for humanitarian aid. That does not mean that Syrians are coming to Turkey through these crossings," he said.
1:14pm: Quake stalls election campaign of Turkey's splintered opposition
Turkey's splintered political opposition was supposed to agree Monday on a joint candidate to challenge Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 20-year grip on power at the ballot box.
But the catastrophic earthquakes, which have killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and Syria, have postponed the meeting indefinitely and thrown the timing of May elections into doubt.
Ruling and opposition party sources now feverishly speculate that Erdogan will delay the May 14 presidential and parliamentary polls in the wake of Turkey's worst disaster of modern times.
Erdogan has not uttered a word about elections since the earthquakes, but appears on television multiple times a day, hugging survivors and consoling the nation.
11:49am: Young girl rescued from rubble in Turkey 178 hours after quake
A young girl named Miray was rescued from the rubble of an apartment block in the southern Turkish city of Adiyaman on Monday, 178 hours after devastating earthquakes shook the region, a minister and media reports said.
Broadcaster CNN Turk said the girl was six years old and that rescuers were also close to reaching her older sister. Turkish Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoglu had earlier said she was four years old.
10:20am: Death toll rises above 35,000 in Turkey, Syria quake
The death toll from the catastrophic earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria has climbed above 35,000, with search and rescue teams starting to wind down their work.
Local officials and medics said 31,643 people have died in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria from last Monday's 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes, bringing the confirmed total to 35,224.
9:56am: UN aid chief says earthquake rescue phase 'coming to a close'
The Turkey and Syria earthquake's rescue phase is "coming to a close", with urgency now switching to providing shelter, food, schooling and psychosocial care, United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said during a visit to Aleppo in northern Syria on Monday.
"What is the most striking here, is even in Aleppo, which has suffered so much these many years, this moment, that moment... was about the worst that these people have experienced," Griffiths added.
The UN official also mentioned that the United Nations will have aid moving from government-held regions in Syria to the rebel-held northwest of the country – also devastated by the deadly earthquakes.
8:28am: Death toll surpasses 4,300 in Syria, UN says
More than 4,300 people were dead and more than 7,600 others were injured in northwest Syria as of February 12 following the deadly earthquakes and aftershocks in neighbouring Turkey, the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Monday.
Rescue workers in Syria's opposition-held northwest zones have revealed a lower toll as of Friday, and are anticipating announcing higher toll in the hours ahead.
7:55am: Woman pulled alive from rubble a week after quake
Rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Turkey on Monday, local media reported, a week after the earthquakes that ravaged southern Turkey and northwest Syria.
Sibel Kaya, 40, was rescued in southern Gaziantep province, some 170 hours after the first of two quakes struck the region, the report said. Rescue workers in Kahramanmaras had also made contact with three survivors, believed to be a mother, daughter and baby, in the ruins of a building.
On Sunday, rescue teams from Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus pulled a man alive from a collapsed building in Turkey, about 160 hours after the initial quake struck, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
3:25am: US urges Syria, all parties to allow earthquake aid to get to those in need
The US government on Sunday called on Syria and all parties to immediately grant humanitarian access to all those in need across the country after the devastating earthquakes that killed at least 33,000 people.
"All humanitarian assistance must be permitted to move through all border crossings, and distribution of aid must be permitted to all affected areas without delay," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said.
Washington called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to grant immediate access to humanitarian assistance to all those in need, without exception, and urged him to follow through on a blanket authorisation for humanitarian assistance deliveries.
A United Nations spokesperson on Sunday said earthquake aid from government-held parts of Syria into opposition-controlled territory has been held up by "approval issues" with one hardline group. The issue poses an added challenge for aid workers trying to reach the northern regions affected by the earthquakes.
Of the 3,500 deaths so far reported in Syria the bulk occurred in the northwest, in territory largely held by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which the US considers a terrorist organisation.
2:30am: Turkey probes contractors as earthquake deaths pass 33,000
Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed in last week's powerful earthquakes as the focus turns to assigning blame.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. While the quakes were powerful, many in Turkey blame faulty construction for multiplying the devastation.
Turkey's construction codes meet current earthquake-engineering standards, at least on paper, but they are rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings toppled over or pancaked down onto the people inside.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
