The United Nations is failing in its duty to solve the continuing wars and conflicts ravaging the Middle East region, according to the Kingdom’s representative at the world body.

Abdullah bin Yahya Al-Mo’allami, Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN, made these remarks while delivering a speech in New York on Monday. This was during a Security Council open debate on the UN’s role in maintaining international peace and security over the past 70 years.

“If we look at the Middle East region, we will find that over the past seven decades there have been no less than 15 wars, most of which were associated in one way or another with the Palestinian issue. The agonies of some of these wars are still affecting the region now,” he said.

Al-Mo’allami said the international community has failed to prevent and terminate the occupation. “We are still seeing the Palestinian people being deprived of self-determination and establishing an independent state on their national soil.”

He said these rights were set out in “legitimate international resolutions adopted by the UN, which has failed to impose and implement them. This has led to the outbreak of numerous armed conflicts in the region.”

He said the international community has failed to protect people across the world from being massacred by illegitimate forces. Rwanda was an example of this inability.

Al-Mo’allami said there was “genocide” occurring in Syria, where citizens of that nation are being killed by people using aircraft, missiles, poison gas and blockades. “The international community has been unable to achieve any progress concerning delivering humanitarian assistance, let alone achieving a fair political settlement.

“The international community has also failed to address current dangers that have taken new forms, such as the threat of international terrorism. Combating this phenomenon has often been in the form of interim and regional solutions that did not deal with the fact that terrorism is a global phenomenon, disappearing from one place only to appear elsewhere.”

“We have not been able to lay the foundations and rules capable of helping countries to overcome post-war turmoil. We should take note of countries suffering such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, which are oscillating between phases of war and peace.” He said other countries such as Afghanistan and Libya have also fallen into internal conflict.

Al-Mo’allami said the organization should look critically at its role over the past 70 years and institute reforms that would rejuvenate its institutions and organs. This includes developing greater credibility.