Saudi Arabia’s powerful deputy crown prince is due to meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, the kingdom’s ambassador said, after the United Nations infuriated Riyadh by briefly blacklisting a Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman will be in New York next week for meetings with business leaders after a visit to the U.S. West Coast, U.N. officials told Reuters.
“An official request has come to the office of the secretary-general for a meeting with the deputy crown prince and as soon as we’re able to confirm something we shall,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told Reuters that the meeting had been confirmed for Wednesday.
President Barack Obama and the deputy crown prince met on Friday and discussed ways to support Iraqis in their fight against Islamic State (ISIS) militants and the importance of a political transition in war-torn Syria, the White House said.
Dujarric said that the U.N. had not yet responded to a June 8 letter to Ban from Mouallimi on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The letter asked the United Nations to reveal details on the sources of information for its report on violations of child rights during armed conflicts.
Dujarric said this week the United Nations would not disclose those sources.
Riyadh, a major U.N. donor, had threatened to cut off funding to a Palestinian aid program and other U.N. initiatives. Saudi Arabia has denied using threats, although Ban himself confirmed the initial Reuters report.
The Saudi-led coalition includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.
