Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister and Head of the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, delivered a speech before the 69th session of the UN General Assembly distributed in New York yesterday.Drawing the attention that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a constituent member of the United Nations charter in 1945, he confirmed Kingdom's keenness to always spare no effort to achieve the goals of collective action under the umbrella of the United Nation. He said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reiterates underscoring the importance of keeping pace with the developments and changes at the international arena through developing the mechanisms of work at the United Nations, reforming the Security Council, supporting the General Assembly, and enhancing the role of its Economic and Social Council. This year 2014 constitutes an important point for the Palestinian cause as it is the year for solidarity with the Palestinian people, but regrettably it coincides with the brutal Israeli aggression which is considered a war crime committed by Israel in Gaza Strip amid an Israeli flagrant ignorance of the world will and the rule of international law. He said the Kingdom raises the question: when the world community would move to restore the rights of the Palestinian people and deter Israel from its arbitral policies and when to coerce Israel to stop its unilateral practices of attempting to Judaize the holy Al-Quds city and change its demographic character and committing daily violations against Palestinians, including deportation, forcible immigration and arbitral arrest in addition to its continual settlement policies, including keeping custody of thousands of families, violating the sanctity of the sacred places, forcing Palestinian citizens outside the holy Al-Quds, enforcing racial segregation policies, and siege of Gaza Strip. He added that this takes place as the world community keeps silent. Prince Saud Al-Faisal called on the world community to shoulder its responsibility to promptly provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people. We also hold Israel accountable for the failure of the recent Palestinian-Israeli negotiations held under the sponsorship of the United States of America, noting the fact that the Palestinian national authority has lived up to its commitments towards the basics of the peace process. Noting the great role played by Egypt to mediate a ceasefire arrangement in Gaza leading to stopping the bloodshed there, we have to be aware that ceasefire in itself is not a final target, but it should be seen within the major target of achieving fair, comprehensive and constant peace in the Middle East according to Arab Peace Initiative and the international legitimacy resolutions, to establish a viable independent Palestinian state with Eastern Al-Quds as its capital. Prince Saud Al-Faisal said the situation in Syria is this century's biggest humanitarian disaster in terms of savageness and crime-committing accompanied by the spread of extremist and terrorist groups which were offered a safe haven in the Syrian territories. He explained that the strategy of the Syrian regime was, since the beginning, pushing to draw the current scenario in Syria. During the time when the world community was hesitant and divided over how to deal with the Syrian crisis, the Syrian regime intentionally opted to militarize the revolution, oppress the peaceful demonstrations and practice the policies of siege, killing and starving with the aim to push the Syrian revolution to the arms of terrorist groups and to illustrate its barbaric treatment as a war against terrorism. He said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was and still a supporter of the moderate Syrian opposition and a fighter against the terrorist groups on the Syrian territories and that the ongoing battle should not ignore the circumstances that led to the emergence of the phenomenon of terrorism. All evidences indicate that the Syrian regime is the forefront of sponsoring terrorism in Syria, he stated. "We suggest that for any political settlement to take place in Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, who lacks legitimacy, should not be allowed to play any role anyway. We see that Geneva I conference offers a solution that would lead to a transitional peaceful power and preserves the State's institutions that guarantee Syria's independence, territorial integrity and unity. It is obvious that such a solution could never come to being with the presence of foreign forces on the Syrian territories such like the Iranian revolutionary guard and Hezbollah forces, which cause an imbalance of power on the ground", he said. The foreign minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia told the General Assembly that Yemen is witnessing accelerating and aggravating situations that necessitate all of us to stand by its side to face the unprecedented challenges that, if not settled now, would go diving towards more violence and struggle and taking the Yemeni people as its first victim. Prince Saud Al-Faisal said this would lead to the destruction of the constructive arrangements reached by Yemenis to complete the political peaceful process according to the GCC initiative and its executive mechanism and the outcome of the national dialogue. Moreover, the circle of violence and struggle will definitely expand to threaten the regional and international security and stability and might reach an unsolvable phase even if massive effort exerted or resources mobilized. He recalled that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has welcomed Peace and Partnership Arrangement which was concluded on September 21, 2014 between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group and expressed hope that the agreement would achieve the aspirations of the Yemeni people to stop violence, in-fighting and to complete the political process and resume development and building. Apart from the intensive effort exerted by President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen to reach an agreement that would hopefully evade the occurrence of chaos and blood shedding, the Houthi group's falling short of implementing the security annex of the arrangement and its incompliance with the general agreement as required has dashed out our hopes, the minister said, calling on all concerned parties to promptly and fully implement the arrangement and the world community to provide the necessary assistance to Yemen in this regard. Prince Saud Al-Faisal called for taking the firm and decisive policies and decisions to confront the fierce terrorist offensive which turned to be armies after having been separate cells and developed their strategy from attacking selected targets to targeting States. He said terrorism is now consisting of a dangerous zone stretching to cover each of Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. To face such dangerous realities, we are required to take the most quick and decisive move to face this phenomenon, taking into consideration the importance of time and the danger of lack of action. Emanating from this, we suggest that war on terror should be comprehensive and according to an executive strategy that will have a clear-cut long-term plan to achieve all targeted goals, including its military, security, economic and intellectual aspects. War against terrorism should not stop at partial successes on certain organizations but should proceed to root-out all terrorist groups and organizations wherever they are, and whatever their motives so as to rid the humanity of this evil and preserve the legitimate human rights in living with dignity, security and peace. Prince Saud Al-Faisal briefed the General Assembly on the major steps the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken over more than a decade in its strenuous fighting of terrorism inside and outside the Kingdom, citing enacting regulations that criminalize whoever deals with terrorism in any way, establishing an international center to combat terrorism under the umbrella of the United Nations, pouring more than $100 million to finance the facility and chasing terrorists in their hideouts and when they come out for confrontation with security men. He expressed astonishment over the world's silence as the Kingdom was alone taking the offensive against this calamity. He said the firm position of the Saudi government against terrorism would never have gained ground if it were not for the concerted effort with its social leaders, Ulema, and ordinary people who stood in one line to steadfast this deviant thinking and action. Prince Saud Al-Faisal said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, given the consensus of most of the Middle Eastern countries that the nuclear weapon is a matter of concern to them, calls for convening the long-awaited conference to establish a nuclear-and-other-mass-destruction-weapon free Middle East as soon as possible in the rest of this year 2014. He held Israel responsible of the delay of this conference as it has not accepted the invitation to attend the event. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is still attaching great importance to tackling the Iranian nuclear issue peacefully through the current 5+1 negotiations, through guaranteeing the right of peaceful use of energy for Iran upon international measures and regulations that not differentiate between any of the region's countries, he added.
