“The President requested and the King agreed to support safe zones in Syria and Yemen, as well as supporting other ideas to help the many refugees who are displaced by the ongoing conflicts,” said a statement from the White House on the phone call between Trump and King Salman.
The president “also raised the idea of supporting safe zones for the refugees displaced by the conflict in the region” with Sheikh Mohammed, who “agreed to support this initiative”, the White House said.
The leaders also touched upon security cooperation and fight against Daesh terror group.
The issue of safe zones has been a source of contention between the former U.S. administration and Turkey, which supports the establishment of such zones inside Syria to allow refugees to resettle in their home country and to prevent more people escaping violence from fleeing abroad.
Both Syria and Yemen are engulfed in major civil wars. The Yemeni conflict started in 2015 when a Saudi-led regional coalition intervened in the country after Houthi rebels took control of the capital Sanaa and ousted the president.
Syria, on the other hand, has been in the throes of war for nearly six years. The conflict, which has involved regional and global powers, as well as terrorist organizations, has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.