The Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al Sabah, called for reforms to the UN Security Council that would assign a permanent Arab seat.
The premier, whose country has a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, said that doing so would better represent the realities of the global political landscape.
Kuwait, in its second stint as Security Council member, has taken up the Palestinian cause, along with pushing for resolutions on other Arab and Muslim concerns.
Speaking in New York on Wednesday, he addressed the Rohingya crisis, calling for countries to do all they can to deter humanitarian disaster and to grant the displaced people citizenship.
Furthermore, Sheikh Jaber condemned the spread of terrorism in the Arab world and urged all local actors to overcome their differences to tackle regional challenges.
He said it was “regrettable that the Middle East” had “the lion’s share of challenges”, for many reasons, and that was the reason why concerted international action was required.
On Palestine, he said the Arab cause had been saturated with UN resolutions that not been enacted because of Israel’s occupation.
He condemned Israeli offences in Jerusalem and categorically rejected all its illegal policies aimed at claiming the Palestinian capital as its own.
As for Iraq, he commended the Baghdad government’s action against ISIS and said peace and stability must be restored to begin efforts to rebuild and allow Iraqis to return home. Kuwait hosted the Iraq Reconstruction Summit earlier this year, at which allies pledged more than $30 billion (Dh110bn) to its restoration.
Turning to Syria, he said Kuwait had made efforts towards remedying the humanitarian crisis in the country, hosting three international donor conferences.
“Destruction is the main theme of the conflict in Syria, its humanitarian and civil impact has yet to be calculated but we know be unfortunately contribute to the loss of an entire generation of our brethren in Syria,” he said.
Sheikh Jaber restated Kuwait’s commitment to unity in Yemen, and said that a solution must be based on the outcomes of national dialogue