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Gulf states urge world to do more to help refugees

Riyadh - A statement called on "the international community to assume its responsibilities to help Syrian refugees".

Foreign Ministers of the the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday called on the international community to take greater responsibility in aiding Syrian refugees after the oil-flush states came under fire for not taking in enough people fleeing war.
The foreign ministers of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), after a meeting in Riyadh, called for a political solution in Syria as part of a worldwide effort to tackle the refugee crisis.
A statement called on "the international community to assume its responsibilities to help Syrian refugees".
Hundreds of thousands of refugees, the majority escaping Syria's civil war, have fled to Europe this year, posing EU leaders with the continent's biggest influx of migrants since World War II.
As EU ministers squabble over solutions to the crisis, Gulf countries have come under fire for not taking their fair share of refugees.
ALSO READ: EU ministers to hold refugee crisis meeting Sep 22: Official
The GCC statement said the countries had accommodated "Syrian brothers, who are treated like residents and benefit from free healthcare, education and the right to work" since Syria's war began in March 2011.
The ministers said the six states had taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, mainly from Lebanon and Jordan, and that they were also providing humanitarian funding and aid to those affected.
ALSO READ: GCC leads in aid efforts for Syrian refugees
They called for "a political solution to the Syrian crisis", including a transitional government and "the departure of all foreign fighters from Syria".
GCC condemns fighting at Al Aqsa Mosque
The meeting was presided over by the Council's current chair, the Qatari Foreign Minister, Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah.
UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan headed the UAE delegation to the meeting, national news agency Wam reported.
In his opening speech, Al Attiyah said the meeting was held amid political, security and economic challenges that affect the GCC. He expressed the hope that more cooperation and coordination will be achieved to bring about further unity, stability, security and prosperity to the people of the GCC.
In the meeting, attended by the GCC Secretary General, Dr. Abdulatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Al Attiyah described the Israeli act of temporal and spatial division of Al Aqsa Mosque and denying worshippers entry to the mosque in the morning as "an unprecedented violation of the sanctity of Al Aqsa Mosque to change its historical and religious identity."