Adel Al-Jubeir

:: Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, have given a new dimension to their diplomacy in New York, and intensified efforts ahead of the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) meeting to solve key regional issues that have been hampering peace and security in the Middle East.

Their diplomatic agenda also includes diverse problems faced by the Muslim world, including the systematic genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir, who is leading the Saudi delegation to the 72nd session of the UNGA, met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Sunday and discussed the whole range of “regional and international issues,” said a Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report published Monday. The meeting was attended by Prince Khaled bin Salman, Saudi ambassador to the US.

The report said that Al-Jubeir also met in Washington with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “During the meeting, they discussed the distinguished relations between the two friendly countries as well as developments in regional and international arenas,” said the report.

“These meetings are extremely important ahead of the deliberations at the UNGA,” said Ibrahim Al-Qayid, a founding member of the National Society for Human Rights.

Al-Qayid said that “the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) including Arab nations, should exert more efforts to put pressure on different lobbies at the UNGA to solve the problems faced by Arab countries and the Muslim world.” There is also a need to look afresh at problems faced by Arab nations and the role of the international community on these issues including the systematic ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, he added.

He said that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the worsening situation in Syria and the deteriorating situation in war-torn Yemen are priorities on our agenda.”

To this end, it is important to note that the “Donor Coordination Group on Yemen” held its meeting in New York on Monday on the sidelines of the UNGA. The meeting aimed to coordinate the joint efforts of major donors supporting Yemen.

Referring to the agenda, a UNGA statement said that the session started formally on Monday. US President Donald Trump made his debut at the UN at a meeting calling for reforms at the organization as tensions continued to rise over North Korea and elsewhere in the world.

In his first visit to the UN since taking office, Trump said that the “UN has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement.”

The General Assembly is one of the six main organs of the UN, the only one in which all member states have equal representation: One nation, one vote. All 193 member states are represented in this unique forum to discuss and work together on a wide array of international issues covered by the UN Charter.