MANAMA – Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal said here on Sunday that it was wrong to equate the Syrian victims with the perpetrator of daily violence and human rights violations on the ground. “How can we compare the two parties and stances? One is unconditionally supplied with weapons to use in killing its own people and sparking sectarian sedition, while the other party is deprived of weapons supplies although in grave need of them for legitimate self-defense, because some states use the justification that they might end up in the hands of terrorists and thus spark a sectarian conflict,” Prince Saud said, addressing the 23rd GCC-EU Joint Ministerial Council's meeting. He said the EU “must immediately implement its decision” to lift an arms embargo on weapons destined for Syria's opposition. This, he said, was essential to offset assistance Damascus received from “Hezbollah and other forces backed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards who get unlimited supplies of Russian weapons”. “The international community must ban the supply of weapons to the Syrian regime and demand that foreign occupation forces withdraw from Syria,” said Prince Saud. The Gulf Arab nations and the European Union pledged to pool their efforts to help convene a peace conference on Syria, as they wrapped up a one-day ministerial meeting. The gathering attended by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and the foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council also called on Iran to play “a constructive role” in the region. The ministers “reiterated the utmost urgency of finding a political settlement of the Syrian conflict,” said a statement issued at the end of the meeting. – SG
