Kuwait urges UNSC to resolve Syrian crisis

The State of Kuwait has called on the international community to exert greater efforts to halt violence and immediately seek a political settlement to the Syrian crisis. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi, the head of the Kuwaiti permanent mission at the United Nations, also urged the United Nations Security Council to undertake its responsibilities and abstain from remaining tight-lapped regarding the wide-scale, grave and systematic breaches of human rights and international laws in Syria. The chief Kuwaiti diplomat, addressing a UNSC session, held late on Wednesday, that tackled the issue of civilians' protection in armed conflicts, also appealed to the council to issue a resolution under Chapter VII "to continuously deal with deterioration of humanitarian conditions" in Syria. There has been no improvement whatsoever, regarding these conditions, since the UNSC endorsed a Presidential Statement, on October 2, 2013, and also after holding the two rounds of the Geneva II negotiations; on the contrary, figures show that number of deaths has approximately risen from 100,000 to 136,000, that of the refugees has increased from 2.2 million to 2.5 million, the locally displaced from four million to 6.5 million, in addition to the plight of 250,000 Syrians who have been stranded in besieged regions, Ambassador Al-Otaibi said. Sensing gravity of the humanitarian tragedy suffered by the brotherly Syrian people and its impact on security and stability in Syria and the region, the State of Kuwait had responded to a request by the UN Secretary General, Ban ki-Moon, to host the second international conference for donors in January, the Kuwaiti envoy said. The conference grouped representatives of 69 states, financial pledges of which amounted to USD 2.4 billion, in which Kuwait contributed with USD 500 million, for sake of alleviating plight of the Syrian people. Source: KUNA