Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said on Friday that world confidence in the United Nations had been shaken after the world body failed to adopt a resolution against the Syrian regime's deadly crackdown on protests.
"We all used to take pride in the United Nations which used to bring us together and not divide us ... but what took place does not augur well as world confidence in the United Nations has undoubtedly been shaken," King Abdullah said in a televised speech while receiving religious scholars, writers, thinkers, media men from inside the Kingdom and abroad who were guests at the National Heritage and Culture Festival currently underway in the Janadriyah village, the SPA reported.
"We are going through scary days and unfortunately what happened at the United Nations is absolutely regrettable," the king said.
King Abdullah was alluding to the blocking by Russia and China last Saturday of a UN Security Council resolution condemning the crackdown by President Bashar Assad's regime. "The world is ruled by brains, by justice, by morals and by fairness."
Arab foreign ministers will discuss a proposal next week to send a joint UN-Arab mission to Syria, a senior Arab League official said on Thursday, after a solely Arab team failed to end President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protests.
Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf Arab states, as well as Jordan and Morocco, pulled their observers out last month after the mission failed to halt bloodshed.
King Abdullah also decorated the poet, Ibrahim Khafaji, with the King Abdul Aziz Medal of the First Order who was declared the Cultural Personality of the year.
