Arab League supports extending African peacekeepers in Darfur

Mar 23, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Amr Musa, Secretary General of the Arab League (AL), stressed here Thursday his support for African Union Peace and Security Council’s recent decision to extend the mandate of the African peacekeeping forces in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

“Sudan is a sovereign country and the deployment of foreign troops on its land should not be carried out without an agreement of the Sudanese government,” Musa told a press conference.

Musa arrived here Wednesday evening to attend an AL foreign ministerial meeting in preparation for the coming Arab summit to be held here on March 28-29.

At the press conference, the AL chief disclosed that the Arab summit would discuss in closed-door sessions a number of political issues, including the situation in Iraq, the relations between Syria and Lebanon, the situation on the Palestinian lands as well as the Darfur crisis in Sudan.

The Arab-African cooperation, the nuclear situation in the Arab region and the fears of armament race would also be included in the summit agenda, he added.

Musa specially called on the Arab states to provide urgent financial assistance for the Palestinian people, saying “the assistance for the Palestinians is a national duty and responsibility for all the Arabs.”

He expressed his belief that all Arab heads of state will attend the Khartoum summit meeting, saying “the attendance will be intensive” and “no head of state of any Arab country has submitted to us an apology for his absence.”

Earlier on Thursday morning, the AL Social and Economic Council started its two-day meeting with attendance of ministers of finance, trade and social affairs from all the 22 arab states.

(Xinhua/ST)