State calls for emergency Arab meeting

KUWAIT: Kuwaitis hold placards during a demonstration outside the Russian embassy to condemn Moscow’s support for the Syrian regime besieging rebel-held Aleppo yesterday in Kuwait City. Carrying banners saying “Stop crimes” and “Save Aleppo,” around 2,000 demonstrators marched on the diplomatic compound housing the embassy in Kuwait City. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: The State of Kuwait yesterday called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to shoulder "its historic responsibility and stop the blood shedding" in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo.  The State of Kuwait, which has followed up "with deep concern and pain, the tragic conditions experienced by the Syrian brethren in Aleppo, has called on the international community, namely the Security Council, to shoulder the historic responsibility and halt the blood-letting, protect the civilians and dispatch humanitarian aid into the city," said an official source of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

Kuwait calls on the international community to respond to the exerted efforts by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey and hold the extraordinary and emergency session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the situation in Syria, the official source added.

Kuwait, in line with its Arab and Islamic responsibilities, which has called for an emergency session of the Arab League Ministerial Council, has also urged for an urgent meeting at the Islamic level to discuss the tragic developments in Aleppo.

As part of these efforts, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah has called the chiefs of the GCC, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, counterparts in Arab and Islamic nations, urging them to response to the call for holding the emergency meetings.

Emergency meeting

Meanwhile, Kuwait called for holding an extraordinary Arab ministerial meeting next Monday to discuss the "tragic conditions" in the war-battered Syrian city of Aleppo. Ambassador Ahmad Abdulrahman Al-Bakr, the State of Kuwait Permanent Delegate to the Arab League, said in a statement that Kuwait requested earlier yesterday holding an irregular meeting of the Arab foreign ministers to discuss the current dangerous conditions in shadow of the aggravating tragic situation in the city of Aleppo.

Current consultations are involving Kuwait, the Arab League General Secretariat and Tunisia, the current chair of the Arab League Council. The Arab League Council is due to hold an extraordinary meeting at the delegates' level today in response to a request by Qatar-backed by other Arab states-to discuss the catastrophic conditions in Aleppo.

Phone calls

In the meantime, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani discussed Tuesday, via phone, with Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu recent developments in Aleppo.

During the two phone calls, they reviewed the worsening humanitarian situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo as a result of the brutal shelling by the regime and its militias. They also touched upon means to intensify international efforts to stop massacres and gross violations against the Syrian people, to take out civilians through safe humanitarian corridors, and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the trapped people. - KUNA