Saudi Gazette report
BRUSSELS – Saudi Arabia called on the international community on Wednesday to take decisive measures to prevent Iran and its militias from perpetrating ethnic cleansing and sectarian and demographic changes in Syria.
While calling upon the United Nations and the international humanitarian organizations to take all necessary procedures to halt such practices, the Kingdom underlined the need for bringing the perpetrators of war crimes in Syria to justice in line with the concerned UN resolution, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Addressing the Brussels Conference on the Future of Syria and the Region, Abdurrahman Al-Ahmad, Saudi ambassador to Belgium and head of the Kingdom’s mission to the European Union, reiterated the Kingdom’s firm stance in preserving the unity and territorial integrity of Syria and safeguarding its security and military institutions. He expressed the hope that the international resolutions for a ceasefire and delivery of humanitarian aid, and release of detainees and abductees would be come into force.
Representatives of more than 70 countries are attending the conference.
The Saudi envoy slammed the recent chemical attack by the Syrian regime in Idlib, describing it as a new criminal act reflecting recklessness of the regime with regard to complying the international resolutions. He said that the ugliest aspect of the Syrian crisis is the survival of the Syrian regime and continuation of its criminal atrocities.
Ahmad noted that the Kingdom has long sought to find peaceful solutions to the Syrian crisis since its outbreak and worked with the friendly states to avoid a human tragedy. “On the basis of an international mandate, the spectrum of the Syrian opposition was invited to the Riyadh Conference on 8-10 December, 2015. This conference led to the establishment of the Supreme Negotiations Commission for the Syrian opposition forces,” he said while pointing out that this commission was regionally and internationally welcomed at the time.
Ahmad said the Kingdom stressed its support for the efforts of UN Envoy Stephan de Mistura to find a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis with no role for Al-Assad in addition to pushing the negotiations between the Syrian parties in Geneva towards more progress based on Geneva (1) Conference Declaration, the Security Council’s resolution No. 2254 and the relevant international resolutions. “In the humanitarian field, the Kingdom has contributed to alleviating the suffering of the Syrian refugees. It has hosted about 2.5 million Syrians who are being treated as Saudi citizens in the fields of health, education and labor market,” Ahmad said.
He noted that the Kingdom has provided substantial humanitarian and relief aid, whether through donor conferences, the National Campaign to Support the Syrian People or the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Works. “Many programs are currently being implemented within Syria or neighboring countries of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon where the delivery of total aid consignment amounted to more than $870 million in addition to commitments through the conferences of donor countries and the recent London conference with a pledge of donations worth $100 million.
