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UN Syria envoy urges regional states to confront ISIL's "serious" threat

UN Special Representative to Syria Staffan de Mistura
UN Special Representative to Syria Staffan de Mistura
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (KUNA) -- UN Special Representative to Syria Staffan de Mistura has called on all countries in the region to confront the "extremely serious" threats of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
ISIL militants have declared so-called Islamic State over large swath of lands they controlled in Syria and Iraq.
"The terrorist threat of ISIL is extremely serious one and needs to have participation of every country to confront it," De Mistura said in a statement to KUNA and Kuwait TV after his meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, at Kuwait's UN Mission last night.
De Mistura has been recently appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as a special representative to Syria to succeed Lakhdar Brahimi.
He termed as "important" the meeting with Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled "because of the dual role not only a minister of a very important country but a chair of a group of countries very much involved in the issue of Syria." Kuwait is currently chairing the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and is the President of the Arab League. Kuwait is also chairing the Arab Syria committee.
He said they discussed regional involvement in reaching a solution for the Syria crisis, which broke out in March 2011, killing some 250,000 people, displaced some seven million people internally and forced many families to seek refuge in neighboring countries.
"What is happening in Syria has repercussions in the region, and the region can contribute to solve or assist in solution to the problem in Syria, although the final solution depends on the Syrians alone," said De Mistura.
He called for providing further humanitarian assistance for the Syrian people.
Kuwait hosted two donor conferences to help the Syrian people in 2013 and 2014. Total pledges of the two conferences amounted to USD four billion, of which Kuwait contributed USD 800 million.
Kuwait's government and non-governmental organizations have been active in offering humanitarian assistance to Syrians both in and outside the country. (end) bs.mao