This morning in Damascus, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, accompanied by Cardinal Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio in Syria, and by the under-secretary of the aforementioned Dicastery, Fr. Nicola Riccardi, met with President Bashar Hafez al-Assad. During the meeting, the Cardinal-Prefect consigned to the Head of State a letter addressed to him by the Holy Father, expressing the profound concern of His Holiness Pope Francis for the humanitarian situation in Syria, with particular reference to the dramatic conditions of the civilian population in Idlib.