Saudi Arabia’s 71 years of support for the UN

The United Nations Charter was signed in 1945 in San Francisco with Saudi Arabia among the founding members. The Saudi delegation to the San Francisco Conference was headed by Prince Faisal bin Abdul Aziz who later became the Kingdom’s third king.

Since that time, the Kingdom has provided financial, political and humanitarian support to UN agencies and it is still doing so.
The Kingdom is proud of its permanent commitment to the principles contained in the UN Charter. The principles are confirmed by the Saudi commitment to support the United Nations and its specialized agencies.
In 2000, the late King Abdullah — who was crown prince at the time — said in a speech at the Millennium Summit organized by the United Nations at its headquarters in New York, “My country is proud that it was one of the founding members of this great body, United Nations. And is also proud that it was, and still is, an active and effective member in the UN’s work and tasks. The Kingdom stresses its firm belief that the United Nations remains the greatest hope for humanity after Almighty Allah. We hope it can save coming generations from the scourge of war despite everything.”
The Kingdom presented to the UN secretary-general and the governments of states participating in the International Counterterrorism Conference in Riyadh in 2005, a proposal that the General Assembly adopt the Riyadh Declaration issued by the International Counterterrorism Conference as well as the recommendation to establish an international center to combat terrorism.
In 2006, the UN responded to the Saudi proposal to hold a high-level meeting for dialogue among followers of different religions, cultures and civilizations.
Total assistance provided by the Kingdom to developing countries during the period 1973-2009 was more than $99.75 billion which benefited more than 95 of those developing countries.
According to UN statistics, Saudi Arabia is No. 6 among the 10 largest donors of development assistance. The Kingdom has donated more than $115 billion during the past four decades.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that except for the generous contribution of the Kingdom, the United Nations would have only minimal new resources.
He praised the humanitarian efforts of the Kingdom, especially in relation to the support of humanitarian organizations including the UNRWA in Palestine. He also expressed his hope that the Kingdom will continue this support to bridge the large gap in financial support for this organization.
Recently, the Kingdom submitted an initiative to the United Nations to support the Syrian people at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan under the direct supervision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif.
Also, the Kingdom ranked first in terms of providing humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people, and contributed to saving a large number of citizens who are suffering from oppression by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias.

Source: Arab News