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GCC exerting tremendous efforts to support needy around globe - Al-Zayani

GCC Secretary General Abdullateef Al-Zayani
GCC Secretary General Abdullateef Al-Zayani
KUWAIT, Oct 13 (KUNA) -- GCC Secretary General Abdullateef Al-Zayani said Monday the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been exerting tremendous efforts to supporting the needy around the world.
"The GCC countries have religious and humanitarian obligation, and their international responsibilities compel them to extend hand for the needy ... making the Gulf countries at the fore of donor countries for humanitarian purposes," Al-Zayani said in a speech at the 5th annual conference on "Effective Partnership and Information Sharing for Better Humanitarian Action." He said the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the six GCC countries were active in humanitarian activities as well.
He said the conference would create a good opportunity to discuss means of cooperation and coordination between NGOs and UN agencies to boost their partnership in humanitarian work.
Al-Zayani said the region has been witnessing bloody conflicts over the past four years, notably the killing and displacement of the Syrian people whose human rights were violated.
The plight of the Syrian people, either inside their country or in neighboring nations, compel the international community to help them, he said. The Syrian regime, added Al-Zayani, should be forced to abide by UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 2165 regarding the opening of new passegeways for the provision of humanitarian aid for the Syrian people.
Al-Zayani thanked the State of Kuwait for hosting two international conferences to helping the Syrian people, where total pledges amounted to some USD 3.8 billion.
The GCC chief also said people in Yemen and Libya were suffering from their internal conflicts thus in dire need of assistance.
"The political circumstances in the Middle East and the renewal of conflicts in many of the regional countries have created a state of chaos, violence, bloodshed and destruction of cities and displacement of innocent civilians," he said.
The larger the conflicts are, he warned, the more space terrorist organizations would have to further undermine security and stability.
Arab League Assistant Secretary General and Head of the Social Affairs Sector, Dr. Laila Najem, said the Arab world was suffering from growing man-made crises, citing the Syrian conflict.
She said the Palestinian people were also suffering from the destruction of their infrastructure.
Hesham Yusuf, Assistant Undersecretary of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said there were more than 430 million people affected by over 2,100 criese, epidemics, earthquakes or tornadoes between 1990 and 2012. (pickup previous) sss.jn.bs