Saudi Crown Prince meets US officials, UN chief on sidelines of UNGA

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef has met on Monday with United States Secretary of State John Kerry, Assistant to US President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco, and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The Crown Prince met Kerry to discuss bilateral issues between Saudi Arabia and the US. They also discussed issues affecting regional stability.

Prince Abdullah bin Faisal bin Turki, Saudi Ambassador to the US, also attended the meeting.

During the meeting with Ki-moon, the crown prince “reviewed aspects of cooperation between the Kingdom and the United Nations, as well as efforts toward a number of international issues,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The meeting was also attended by a number of princes and ministers.

On the sidelines of UNGA, the crown prince also met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Monday. “During the meeting, they reviewed the strong bilateral relations between the kingdom and Pakistan and ways to further develop them in various fields,” SPA said.

Earlier on Monday, the Saudi crown prince spoke on the refugee crisis and said the kingdom ranked as the third country worldwide in terms of providing humanitarian relief and development assistance, having provided over the past four decades about $139bln in aid.

“Saudi Arabia deals with this issue based on the principles of the Islamic religion, which calls for Islam and peace and it is keen to help the needy,” he said.

Watch: Saudi Crown Prince meeting with Kerry, Ki-moon

Saudi Crown Prince: The kingdom is third biggest humanitarian donor