GCC delegates express worry over delay of Palestine conference

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ambassadors to the UN Geneva Office have voiced worry over the delay of a proposed international conference for protecting the Palestinian people, a Kuwaiti senior diplomat said on Wednesday.
The GCC delegates obtained details of the first phase of the consultations by the Swiss Foreign Ministry for organizing an international conference on the conditions of the Palestinians in line with the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GCIV), Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva Jamal Al-Ghoneim, told KUNA.
The envoys had a meeting with the Swiss Ambassador at Large for the Geneva Conventions Paul Vivat, who briefed them on the preparations made so far to invite the GCIV signatory parties and how to activate the Convention regarding the Palestinian situation through applicable mechanisms, Al-Ghoneim noted.
The Swiss side notified us of the international parties being contacted to secure a successful conference, the first to consider applying the GCIV on the Palestinians, he said.
During the meeting, the GCC ambassador stressed Arab, Palestinian and Islamic concerns over the slackness of holding the international event and the ensuing negative impact on people in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
The Kuwaiti Ambassador pointed to an Arab conviction that the destruction and devastation the Palestinian suffered in Gaza due to the last Israeli aggression on the Strip threw responsibility on the international community, Switzerland in particular, to provide protection for them.
Al-Ghoneim referred to the talks held here in the same context in Geneva between an Arab delegation led by Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister: Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah with senior Swiss officials. The meeting with Vivat was attended by the Saudi, Qatari, Bahraini and Omani Permanent Representatives to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva.