The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia stressed its firm stance in preserving the unity and territorial integrity of Syria and maintaining its security and military institutions. The Kingdom expressed the hope that the conventions endorsed by the international resolutions for a ceasefire and delivery of humanitarian aid, release of detainees and abductees were implemented. This came during the Kingdom's speech delivered by the Saudi ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Duchy of Luxemburg, who is also Head of the Kingdom's mission to the European Union, Abdurrahman bin Sulaiman Al-Ahmad, at the Brussels Conference on the Future of Syria and the Region, which was held today in Brussels with presence of representatives of more than 70 countries. "The Kingdom has long sought to find peaceful solutions to the Syrian crisis since its inception and worked with the brotherly and friendly states to avoid a human tragedy. In this regard and on the basis of an international mandate, the spectrum of the Syrian opposition were invited to the Riyadh Conference during 8-10, December, 2015. This conference led to establishment of the supreme negotiations commission for the Syrian opposition forces and revolution. This commission was regionally and internationally welcomed at the time," he said. Al-Ahmad pointed out that the Kingdom stresses its support for the efforts of UN Secretary-General's envoy Stephan de Mistura to find a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis with no role of Al-Assad as well as push 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. the Saudi ambassador Abdurrahman bin Sulaiman Al-Ahmad "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia calls on the international community to take a firm stance against the Iranian and its militias' interferences which work on demographic and sectarian change and ethnic cleansing in Syria. The Kingdom expresses concern at the continued systematic forced displacements aiming at causing demographic change in some areas in Syria, calling upon the relevant United Nations and humanitarian organizations to take all necessary procedures to halt such operations," Al-Ahmad added. Ambassador Al-Ahmad stressed importance of brining the perpetrators of war crimes in Syria to justice, lauding the United Nations General Assembly's resolution No. 2332 on 22, December, 2016, regarding establishment of a mechanism for punishing perpetrators of war crimes in Syria. "In the humanitarian field, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 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," Al-Ahmad said. He pointed out 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 inside Syria or neighboring countries (Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon) where the total aid amounted to more than $870 million dollars in addition to commitments through the conferences of donor countries and the conference held recently in London where the Kingdom announced the donation of $100 million. Al-Ahmad concluded that it is wrong to squeeze the Syrian crisis into just a humanitarian profile, although it is a painful, tragic and unprecedented crisis, but the ugliest aspect is the survival of the Syrian regime and its criminal continuation. Recently, the Syrian regime used sarin gas in the countryside of Idlib which is a new criminal step reflecting reckless of this regime regarding the international resolutions and demands.
