The UN refugee agency's Gulf Cooperation Council regional representative Omran Ridha hailed Kuwait's role as "crucial" in alleviating the suffering of Syrian refugees. Kuwait's hosting of an international donors conference for Syrian refugees for the second consecutive year was deemed "generous" by the UN official, who went on to commend His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for accepting the host of the meeting. There are around six million internally displaced persons in Syria and two million refugees in neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. These hosting nations also require assistance, he said. The UN hopes to gather some USD six billion to respond to the needs of the ever-increasing crisis. "We need a lot of funds to save children and the youth, " he emphasised. On a wider scale, he commended the role of the six GCC member states - Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - for their continued support of the Syrian refugee issue and global humanitarian affairs in general. Ridha said, on a final note, that it was up to the international community to keep the hope of the children and youth of Syria alive, and that this will be the goal of the talks in Kuwait.