ROME– Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber, will continue to work for peace after the UN named him a “world humanitarian leader,” the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Italy said Friday.

 The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon this week gave the Emir the special title and named Kuwait a “global humanitarian centre” after an international conference held in Kuwait City to help the displaced and devastated civilians in the Syrian conflict raised as much as dlrs 2.4 billion including dlrs 500 million pledged by Kuwait .

“Kuwait invited world leaders to this conference at the same time as we are hosting the Arabic Islamic summit and the Gulf Cooperation Council summit,” the Ambassador, Sheikh Ali Al-Khaled Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, told the Italian Insider.

 “The Kuwaiti donation in response to the U.N. appeal underlines that, of course, we continue to believe that peaceful discussions in the U.N. works, not war.”

 “You have to give peace a chance and the United Nations is the house where we can discuss and solve problems between countries,” the Ambassador said. He was speaking as Italy prepares for a visit in Rome next Tuesday by the Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, to meet Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

 In addition to his outstanding humanitarian record, the Emir of Kuwait continues to work behind the scenes for peace in the Middle East, using contacts he developed during decades of diplomacy as Kuwait’s foreign minister and during his role as the international dean of foreign ministers, the Ambassador added. “He has a lot of friends all over the world. He always works with them to come up with peaceful solutions to problems.”

As well as helping Syrian civilians receive basic services in Syria, the donations to the conference in Kuwait will be used to help alleviate the suffering of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

 “Jordan has really been hit by the Syrian crisis, Lebanon is a small country that has been hit, Iraq also has been hit. The Jordanian government kindly has taken large numbers of refugees. But this is a responsibility for the whole world, to help the UN help Jordan and Lebanon shoulder this burden,” said the Ambassador.

 The donations raised at the conference will be used by the UN agencies working with the refugees. “We are partners with the World Food Programme, the UNHCR and UNICEF working to ease the suffering. They are the only ones who can have access to the refugees. They are doing a good job, a dangerous job inside a war zone, they are heroes,” the Ambassador emphasized.

 The visit by the Kuwait Prime Minister to Italy next week comes as both countries prepare to mark the historic 50^th anniversary in November this year of the establishment of full diplomatic relations  between Kuwait and Italy.