Saudi King, Brahimi Discuss Ways to End Syria Violence
Saudi King Abdullah held talks on Friday with international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on ways to end the bloodletting in Syria, the official SPA news agency reported.
The talks held in the Red Sea city of Jeddah centered on "how to stop all the violence, bloodshed... and violations of human rights," in Syria, the agency said.
Ahmad Fawzi, Brahimi's spokesman, said in a statement they agreed the crisis was deteriorating and causing "untold suffering for the Syrian people."
"They agreed on the dire need to stop the bloodshed and provide humanitarian aid to the more than 2.5 million Syrians inside the country, who were affected by the fighting, and the over 348,000 refugees registered in neighboring countries," he said.
The Syrian regime accuses Saudi Arabia, along with Turkey and Qatar, of arming the rebels fighting the forces of President Bashar Assad since the uprising against him erupted in March last year.
On Thursday, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdel Aziz bin Abdullah urged Brahimi to work for "an immediate halt to the bloodshed of the Syrian people," also at a meeting in Jeddah, the SPA said.
Brahimi arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on his second regional tour aimed at finding a solution to the conflict in Syria after Damascus rejected a U.N. call to implement a unilateral ceasefire.
The envoy first visited the Middle East in mid-September and traveled to Damascus where he met Assad but earned no promise of concessions from him.
In an interview with Agence France Presse on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Brahimi would soon return to Damascus to try again to meet Assad.
Ban suggested Brahimi could go to the Syrian capital next week if his meetings in the region this week were productive.
Source: Agence France Presse
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