Assad ‘must go’ to stop Syria bleeding

NEW YORK: Saudi Arabia has reiterated that those whose hands are stained with the blood of the Syrian people have no place in a new Syria.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir expressed deep concern over the international community’s inability to save innocent Syrians from the “killing machine” of Bashar Assad that has devastated their country and led to the world’s most tragic humanitarian crisis.
He said the tragic conflict, which is entering its fifth year, has devolved into the worst humanitarian disaster, claimed some 300,000 lives and driven millions of desperate people from their homeland.
Calling for urgent collective action to end the suffering of Syrians, Al-Jubeir said every effort must be exerted to arrive at a political solution as set out in the 2012 Geneva Communique.
Turning to the Palestinian issue, Al-Jubeir said: “Today, we desperately need to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, based on Security Council resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative put forward by Riyadh over 13 years ago and adopted by the Arab and Islamic world to achieve the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.
Al-Jubeir further said that the goal of military operations in Yemen is “to reduce the risk of militias and the protection of our borders, and to find a political solution based on the initiative of GCC states...”