Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, the foreign minister, described his talks with visiting UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as positive and constructive, highly valuing the role of the United Nations in the field of humanitarian assistance, potentials building and dispute solutions. In a joint press conference with the UN secretary general held at the headquarters of the foreign ministry in Riyadh, Al-Jubeir said "we have a good talk on the history of cooperation exchanges between the Kingdom and the UN in the fifties and sixties of last century when the UN has provided assistance and support for the Kingdom in the field of water, medicine, education, and development, a package appreciated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a reason why the Kingdom is trying to become one of the world's big donors to the UN programs and activities". He said the meeting tackled the situations in the region, particularly in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya, including finding solutions to the Islamophobia, terrorism and extremism, especially how to activate the anti-terrorism center affiliated to the UN. Al-Jubeir congratulated Guterres on being appointed the UN secretary general, looking forward to work with him, the international organization and all its institutions in different fields which are supposed to serve the interests of security, peace and humanity. For his part, Guterres expressed thanks to and appreciation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; his Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince for the warm welcome and generous hospitality accorded to him during his first visit ever to the Kingdom, considering the Kingdom as a basic pillar of rapprochement in the region and the world at large, expressing confidence in the leverage of the Kingdom to play greater role in the world at the present time. He praised the great cooperation witnessed between the Kingdom and the United Nations, particularly as regards combating of terrorism and enabling the UN to further gain potentials to combat terrorism and play an increasing role in supporting the member states to get developed and promote their potentials necessary to effectively fight the epidemic and combat the other aspects of extremism and violence which manage to feed terrorism in the world. He explained that terrorism is being fed through numerous factors, citing the lack for political solutions for a number of issues, like the situation in Syria where it is important that we fight Daesh organization as we could not reach that end in that country unless there is a comprehensive political solution for the interests of the whole Syrian people, noting that one of the major reasons feeding terrorism is the expression of the Islamophobia feelings and the fear from Islam as well as the politics that adopt the approach of frightening from Islam. We ought to work to defeat terrorism and overcome the circumstances that help it grow and put the comprehensive solutions to reach all regions of tension. The UN Secretary General lauded the assistance provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the region and paid tribute to the great role it was playing as part of the political solution to the Syrian crisis, confirming that the United Nations shares the Kingdom its concern as regards the risks of the situations in a number of countries. --More
