DHAKA: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreed to comply with a United Nations resolution aimed at stopping financing for Islamist militant groups in Syria and Iraq after four of their nationals were named among a group blacklisted by the international body.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday intended to weaken the Islamic State (IS), an Al-Qaeda splinter group that has seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate, and Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing, Nusra Front.

Western officials believe that wealthy Gulf Arabs, in countries that include Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have been a main source of funding for Sunni Islamist militants fighting against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

While Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia is a main backer of the rebellion against Assad, a member of the Alawite sect of Shia Islam and an ally of Riyadh’s rival Shia Iran, it says it is careful to direct state support to moderate groups, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 2058 HRS, AUG 17, 2014