The third international humanitarian pledging conference for Syria, attended by representatives from 78 countries and 43 nongovernmental organizations, was held in Kuwait City on Tuesday with opening remarks by Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Jaber al-Sabah, followed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's speech. Sabah said in his speech: "The region has become a safe haven for terrorists due to the crisis." He continued by thanking the Turkish government for hosting Syrian refugees and criticizing the U.N. Security Council (UNSC): "The permanent members of the UNSC must put their narrow interest aside." Ban began his speech at the conference by underlining and reaffirming the crisis in Syria and praised Turkey and other hosting countries' people and governments for their initiatives and efforts in the Syrian crisis. While Ban emphasized during his speech the importance of humanitarian assistance, he said: "The best humanitarian solution to end the suffering is a political solution to end the war.""Absent a political agreement based on the Geneva Communique, the scale and regional impact of the world's humanitarian disaster will only grow," Ban said.Following Ban's speech, the U.N. undersecretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, and High Commissioner for Refugees Helen Clark also made statements at the conference, emphasizing the severity of the crisis. Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz attended the conference to represent Turkey. In his speech he said: "The financial burden on the Turkish government has exceeded $5.6 billion, making Turkey effectively the largest donor with respect to the Syrian humanitarian crisis." He further underlined that Turkey and the neighboring countries to Syria "must not be left alone in coping with this humanitarian crisis, which requires a genuine historical partnership among all members of the international community."Speaking to members from the Turkish media at the conference, Yılmaz also said: "A generation in Syria is endangered, thus the international community must work together to resolve the crisis." He further said: "The humanitarian crisis in Syria will not come to an end without the establishment of a solid political resolution and ending the regime of [President Bashar] Assad." As Turkey is expected to receive approximately $664 million of donations for Syrian refugees, Yılmaz emphasized the importance of getting rid of the root cause of the issue.Among the 43 nongovernmental organizations, the chairman of Turkey's IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, Bülent Yıldırım, discussed the event and talked to members of the Turkish media during the conference. Yıldırım said: "During the meeting organized on Wednesday in Kuwait City, the nongovernmental organizations announced to pledge $500 million toward the Syrian crisis, with IHH donating $100 million." He said that IHH is the largest donor among all the nongovernmental organizations in regard to the Syrian crisis. Emphasizing the severity of the issue, Yıldırım said: "While the situation in Syria is similar to Gaza, it is much worse and severe as the civilians still living there are consuming cats and dogs to survive."As officials from the U.N. said, the conference aims to gather $8 billion for the Syrian crisis, Sabah said he would pledge $500 million in humanitarian aid to help ease the crisis, the EU also pledged $500 million at the conference and the U.K. pledged $150 million.