Cairo - Arab foreign ministers agreed at their emergency
meeting Sunday to send a delegation to Lebanon to broker a 'road map'
for an end to the current crisis in the country.
In a statement issued at the end of their hours-long meeting, the
ministers urged Lebanese rival powers from the ruling governing
coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition to cooperate with the
delegation.
The Arab League chief, Amr Musa, and Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad
bin Jasim al-Thani will head the delegation.
New proposals to resolve the crisis were discussed at the meeting,
including forming committees made up of Arab and international
figures acceptable to all Lebanese powers to mediate between the
western-backed ruling coalition and the Iranian- and Syrian-backed
opposition.
'The door is open for new ideas. But the basis for any solution is
the Arab initiative,' Musa said at a press conference after the
meeting.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, which back the Lebanese
government, have pushed for a strongly-worded statement condemning
Hezbollah's military actions.
But upon Syrian objection, their proposed draft statement was
toned down, omitting any implicit or explicit condemnation of the
Shiite Muslim group.
The ministers, however, cut short their meeting to issue an appeal
for an immediate end to armed violence in Mount Lebanon and other
parts of the country.
The deputy chief of the Arab League, Ahmed bin Hilli, read a
statement appealing 'for the withdrawal of armed men from areas of
tension and making possible the mission of the Lebanese army to
maintain security for the sake of stopping bloodshed.'
The appeal was made at the request of Lebanon's acting Foreign
Minister Tarek Mitri, who is representing his country in the meeting.
Useless AuthorityMay 12th, 2008 - 07:46:57
Just like America, the Arab League has little sway in putting an end to the violence of those who recycle their hate and children into becoming the next killing machines.
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