Arab League silent on Middle East peace process
AFP
SIRTE- Arab League leaders voiced their support for Sudan Saturday, but made no mention of the troubled Middle East peace process at the end of a summit meeting in Libya.
The Arab League "affirms its solidarity with Sudan and emphasises the necessity of respecting its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, and supports efforts to achieve peace" in the country, in a final statement read by the League's secretary general Amr Mussa.
He has once again become the focus of the international community, this time ahead of a January 9 referendum in which southerners could opt for independence.
The Arab League also pledged to work closely with the African Union and the United Nations to help Sudan organise the referendum and ensure that it is held in a "peaceful, free, credible and transparent manner".
The Middle East peace process was also due to have been discussed at the closed-door meeting, with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas to have presented a report to Arab Leage leaders, a day after meeting the group's foreign ministers.
The Arab League Follow-up Committee for the peace process on Friday backed Abbas's threat to quit direct talks with Israel unless the Jewish state halts settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
The committee of 13 foreign ministers urged the United States to pursue its efforts to stop Israeli settlement activity, and said it would meet again in one month to review alternative measures if that fails.
Arab leaders meeting in Sirte initially planned to discuss two items -- reforms to the Arab League and a proposal to create an "Arab neighborhood" of countries that would include Iran and Turkey.
In the absence of a consensus on these points, however, the League's foreign ministers agreed to submit proposals on "the development of joint Arab action" but to postpone the neighborhood issue until their next summit.
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