A Saudi charity group will build a container city that can house 10,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey's Kilis province near the border, a Turkish official said Saturday.

The project of the Saudi National Campaign to Support Brothers in Syria is expected to be ready within a month, the official told AFP.

When opened, it will be the second camp in Kilis, already home to the largest container city for 12,000 refugees.

The Saudi organization will also set up a prefabricated hospital, said the official, declining to give funding figures.

The kingdom has taken a strong stance against the escalating bloodshed in Syria and thrown support behind the Syrian opposition.

The OPEC kingpin and other energy-rich nations of the Gulf have long demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down while voicing support for the rebels calling for his ouster since March 2011.

Turkey shelters more than 80,000 registered refugees in several camps in the southeast region bordering Syria as well as army defectors.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has canceled festive opera performances, which were set to take place across the country to mark National Day on Sunday, in solidarity with the Syrian people, the kingdom’s official media reported.
The Syrian uprising, which has steadily militarized in the face of government repression, has left more than 27,000 dead since it erupted, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Civilians have borne the vast brunt of the violence.

The United Nations puts the toll at 20,000.

The Saudi Arabian deputy foreign minister said on Friday that Security Council inaction on the Syrian civil war gave the Bashar al-Assad regime “a green light” to attack his own people.

Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that the al-Assad regime was “in a race against time to accomplish its objectives using the most advanced means of killing and destruction,” according to the Associated Press.

The Security Council has been deadlocked, with Russia and China blocking three attempts to pass resolutions that would sanction Syria.

“We regret that this regime continues to believe that it can proceed with its suppressive procedures to control the situation without any due regard to the high humanitarian losses,” Abdullah said.

“The Security Council, which is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping peace and security, has failed so far to take a decision about the Syrian crisis and to stop the bloodshed therein. This matter gave the Syrian regime a green light to proceed with its crimes against the Syrian people, in a race against time, to accomplish its objectives using the most advanced means of killing and destruction.”











Reuters