By Khaled Al-Daihani
LONDON, Oct 6 (KUNA) -- Kuwait has continuously provided generous assistance to Arab and Islamic causes and this is evident in the way the GCC state provided support to the Syrian people, said Arab League Secretary General Nabil El-Araby here on Sunday.
Speaking to KUNA here after returning from the 68th UN General Assembly which was held in New York, El-Araby lauded His Highness the Kuwaiti Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah's USD 300 million generous contribution during the first Syria donors' conference held in Kuwait. The conference raised USD 1.4 billion.
He added the Kuwaiti leadership took the initiative to help millions of Syrians who were affected by the war in their country.
El-Araby said that there was an international coordination to hold the second donors conference to benefit the Syrian people.
Last june, the UN called for gathering around USD 5.2 billion to help Syrian refugees and the displaced within Syria.
The Arab senior official stressed that the next logical step was to speed up the process for holding the Geneva II conference, to end the war that led to the death of over 100,000 people and the displacement of 4 million others.
A political solution for the Syrian crisis is a must to achieve democracy for the people of Syria and also peace in the war-torn country, said El-Araby who indicated that the Arab League was not in favor of a military solution for Syria.
In regards to the Arab-Iranian relations, El-Araby hoped that both sides would reach common grounds in regards to issues of pending nature, affirming that the authorities in Tehran should work on measures to end the dispute over issues such as the three UAE Islands claimed by Iran.
On the situation in the Arab world, El-Araby said that overcoming decades of oppression and injustice would take time and effort, adding that notions of democracy and freedom would take a considerable amount of time to settle in the region.
El-Araby also touched on the Palestinian cause, affirming that the Arab League would backup all measures to achieve the Palestinians' goal for an independent state with full sovereignty. (end) kd.gta KUNA 061035 Oct 13NNNN