Angelina Jolie Makes First Public Statement Since Wedding -- And It's About Syria
Even before Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were Mr. and Mrs. Smith Pitt, Jolie was single-mindedly dedicated to her role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Maybe that's why her first public statement after the world was surprised by the Brangelina wedding wasn't about marital bliss, but about the escalating situation in Syra.
"Three million refugees is not just another statistic, it is a searing indictment of our collective failure to end the war in Syria." Jolie said, in a statement on Friday (August 29).
Jolie, who is now a special envoy for the UNHCR, is referring to the conflict in Syria and Iraq between terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the US. ISIS is attempting to set up their own Sunni Islamic state and have already gained control of huge tracts of land in Syria and Iraq. The hostile takeovers and resulting violence have led to the huge number of refugees that Jolie is referring to.
"International stability is steadily bleeding away in Syria," Jolie continued on. "UN Security Council Resolutions are being ignored; war crimes are being committed on a daily basis; regional countries are staggering under the human burden; and Syrian refugees are dying in the Mediterranean sea, trying to reach Europe."
"We need to see a new attempt to resolve the conflict and greater efforts to support more than 13 million Syrians who are in desperate need. The reputation and credibility of the international system is at stake with so many thousands of lives threatened in Syria," she concluded.
Jolie has been working with the UN to support refugees for over decade, so it's not surprising that she's been so vocal about her support, even in lieu of her own happy circumstances.
As for the wedding, it was held last Saturday (August 23) at Chateau Miraval, the couple's French estate. News of the ceremony officially broke on Thursday (August 28) and the couple are now in Malta, already at work on their new movie "By The Sea."
