Mideast situation – LAS Secretary General receives Canada’s Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister – LAS Press release/Non-UN document

Secretary General Receives Canada's Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister (16-1-2005) 

Secretary General Amre Moussa of the Arab League received Canada's Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for Middle East Affairs, Mr. David Mallon.

Official Spokesman Hossam Zaki of the Arab League Secretary General said the meeting tackled the Palestinian and Iraqi issues in view of the concern Canada lays to the situation concerning both issues and the Keenness it displays in knowing the Arab viewpoints over them.

Spokesman Zaki also said Secretary General Amre Moussa has detailed the Canadian official on the Arab stance over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stressing that any improvement in the status quo should be based on objective basis manifested in a positive change in the Israeli stance, a matter that has not yet been proven.

Moussa has also reiterated that the international community must strongly support the new Palestinian leadership, bearing into consideration that solving the Palestinian cause is not only a declaration of a provisional state without factual sovereignty, as such an approach would only lead to further instability and violence, Zaki added.

According to Zaki, Secretary General Moussa has tackled with the Canadian official the situation in Iraq in view of the Arab League's viewpoint over the developments there. In this context, Moussa pointed out the importance of the political process underway and the upcoming elections for building a new Iraq. He further warned against adopting narrow ethnic approaches that might endanger the elections in terms of the abstention of an essential part of the Iraqi society to partake in them.

Likewise, Moussa reiterated his call for an over all dialogue as the best means by which to deal with the subject issue.