LOC18:05
15:05 GMT
RIYADH, Feb 10 (KUNA) -- Confidence in the UN is universally shaken as the
Arab initiative to halt violence in Syria was irredeemably scuttled at the
recent UN Security Council meeting on Syria, said King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz
Al Saud, in remarks he made today at an annual cultural festivity.
What transpired recently at the Security Council meeting was to say the
least "unpalatable," noted the King, according to the Saudi news agency, SPA.
He said "we are going through uncertain times where a select number of
nations call the shots all the time, unaware perhaps that what should be
pervasive in the world are the eternal truths of justice, fairness, and an
untarnished code of morality."
The king was referring to the veto by Russia and China against the Arab
initiative asking the UN Security Council to bolster an Arab plan aiming at
requesting the Syrian president to step down.
The setback at the Security Council was the nadir point in what had in
recent days been a valiant attempt by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries to
stem the tide of violence in Syria, through an overall Arab solution to be
sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
Saudi Arabia and other members of the GCC had recently pulled out their
ambassadors from Syria and had ejected Syrian ambassadors from the GCC
countries, in a retaliatory move against the ratcheting up of the level of
violence in Syria, perpetrated by the Syrian security forces and army units
against the defenseless Syrian populace.
All GCC nations have expressed their consternation at the veto at the UN
Security Council. (end)
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KUNA 101805 Feb 12NNNN