Saudi Pledges $500 Million in Humanitarian Aid for Iraq
Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million in humanitarian aid for Iraq on Tuesday, to be disbursed through the United Nations to those in need regardless of sect or ethnicity, state media reported.
King Abdullah "has ordered $500 million in humanitarian aid to the brotherly people of Iraq affected by the painful events, including the displaced, regardless of their religion, sect or ethnicity," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official SPA news agency.
The United Nations says 1.2 million Iraqis have been driven from their homes by violence this year, hundreds of thousands of them by a three-week-old Sunni militant offensive that has swept up a swathe of territory north of Baghdad.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has been informed of the Saudi aid, which will be "provided through U.N. agencies to the Iraqi people only," the statement said.
Sunni Saudi Arabia has deeply strained relations with Iraq's Shiite-led government.
Riyadh has accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of creating the conditions for last month's jihadist-led offensive by marginalizing its Sunni Arab minority.
Maliki in turn has accused the oil-rich kingdom of supporting "terrorism" in his Shiite-majority country.
The International Organization for Migration has called for the creation of humanitarian corridors, warning that tens of thousands of Iraqis displaced by the violence are beyond the reach of aid agencies.
Source: Agence France Presse
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