By NNN-KUNA
United Nations : The foreign ministers of Arab states have urged the Lebanese to set aside their differences and create an environment that would guarantee success of the presidential elections within the constitutional period and the articles of the Lebanese constitutional.
The plea came in a statement after the foreign ministers held their annual meeting Wednesday night on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The statement condemned the assassinations of politicians, intellectuals and members of the press, most recently the assassination of MP Antoine Ghanem. The assassinations were seen as attempts to destabilize the country and impede the presidential elections.
The ministers urged Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa to spare no effort to help the Lebanese meet the demands of this difficult period.
Meanwhile in press remarks, Moussa said the Arab officials discussed Iraq, the situation in the Middle East and Darfur.
He noted the ministers had seconded the Egyptian proposal to send Egyptian troops to join the peacekeeping forces of the UN and the African Union currently serving in Darfur.
As for the US call for a Middle East peace conference in November, Moussa noted the Quartet — UN, EU, US and Russia — informed the Arab contact group of the belief that there were more favourable conditions now that prompted parties to seriously consider taking part in the conference.
He added that participation would depend first and foremost on developments between now and November, and that two factors would also sway the decision this way or that — the first is the stance with the Arab Initiative, and the second is the Arab demand for a conference to resume peace talks with a specified time-frame that ultimately leads to Israeli pullout and establishment of a State of Palestine as soon as possible.
“The most important thing,” Moussa said, “is that the conference takes place as the last mechanism that would finally lead to an end of Israeli occupation, and the general tendency so far is to attend, alongside Syria.”