Practice greater credibility, Kingdom urges UN

United Nations — Saudi Arabia on Friday urged the United Nations to practice greater credibility, enforce greater precision and rely on official news platforms to obtain information used in its reports and statements.

“The UN should not rely on platforms that spread hate, promote violence between countries and aim at destabilizing their security and stability through misleading reports,” Second Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yasser Al Dabaan said at a meeting of diplomatic envoys.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia rejected a United Nations report blaming the Arab coalition for child deaths in Yemen.

“We exercise the maximum degree of care and precaution to avoid civilian harm,” Saudi UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi had said at the time.

“We reject the inaccurate and misleading information and figures contained in the report and we express our strong reservation with respect to this information,” he said.

Mouallimi blamed the Houthi militia and forces loyal to Yemen’s ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh for putting civilians at risk, including using children as human shields. — SG