NEW YORK: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday met the head of an organization that helps to investigate and prosecute Syria war crimes, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Abdallah Al-Mouallimi met former French judge Catherine Marchi-Uhel, who leads the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM).
The body’s mandate is to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria since March 2011.
The meeting was at the Kingdom’s permanent mission to the UN in New York, where both sides discussed the work of IIIM and the international support provided.
Saudi Arabia was one of the countries that voted during the UN General Assembly in favor of establishing IIIM, with the aim of collecting, consolidating, preserving and analyzing information and evidence of violations of international humanitarian law, international crimes, and human rights violations and abuses; and preparing files to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings, in accordance with international law standards.
Earlier this week a Saudi representative to the UN warned that there would be “no peace without justice” in the long-running Syrian conflict, SPA reported.
Dr. Khaled Manzlawiy, deputy permanent representative of the permanent mission of Saudi Arabia to the UN in New York, took part in talks on ways to protect the rights of Syrian war victims.
IIIM had been set up as a result of the UN Security Council’s inability to lay the foundations for international peace and justice, and the failure of previous decisions on human rights in Syria regarding the protection of displaced people and the preservation of life, he added.
