SYRIA’S ambassador to the UN has hit back at Gulf Arab states after they equated Damascus and its allies with Islamic State.

Syrian permanent representative Bashar al-Jaafari spoke out against a Saudi Arabian-proposed resolution at the UN general assembly’s human rights council on Thursday which expressed “outrage” at “human rights violations” in the war against Isis and other terrorist groups.

The motion, sponsored by Qatar, said that the council “strongly condemns all attacks against the Syrian moderate opposition and calls for their immediate cessation” claiming they benefited Isis and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front.

It also demanded that Syria’s allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, abandon the country.

Saudi ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi exploited the tragic drowning of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi in the Aegean Sea to garner votes.

“I appeal to you not to let Aylan down. Do not kill him twice,” Mr Mouallimi said.

The motion passed with the support of 115 nations, despite the opposition of Russia, Iran and China. Fifteen countries voted against and 51 abstained.

Iran’s UN ambassador Gholamhossein Dehghani said the resolution equated “terrorists with those who fight against them.”

Mr Jaafari said that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey were all aiding Isis to overthrow his country’s secular, pluralist government.

He pointed out that Isis had violated human rights in Syria, Iraq and in several capitals around the world.

Kuwait’s Kuna news agency reported on Thursday that security forces had broken up a transnational Isis cell that had been buying anti-aircraft missiles from Ukraine.

The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said that five suspects had been arrested, including Kuwaiti-born Lebanese leader Osama Khayat, but that four were still at large.

The suspects included five Syrians, two Australians, a Lebanese, an Egyptian and a Kuwaiti named as Rakan al-Ajmi.

According to the ministry, the cell had been providing Isis in Syria with new recruits, money, weaponry and logistical support.

It had made deals to purchase weaponry from Ukraine, including Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, which have been used by terrorist forces in Syria to shoot down several aircraft.