WORLD / Middle East |
Arab foreign ministers hold emergent meeting(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-06-16 01:18 Foreign ministers of major Arab League (AL) member states started an emergent meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. Ahead of the meeting, AL Secretary General Amr Moussa consulted with head of the Palestinian delegation Azzam al-Ahmed, who was also head of Fatah's parliamentary faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council. The AL ministerial meeting came after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip following days of deadly conflict with its rival party Fatah. It was the first time in decades for the Cairo-based AL to hold an emergent ministerial meeting on Palestinian internal fighting. Previous AL meetings have always focused on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Regarding Lebanon, the Lebanese army has since May 20 been fighting with Islamist militants of Fatal al-Islam, who holed up in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The about four-week-long conflict, which has killed dozens of people, showed no sign of letup so far. The Lebanese government says Fatah al-Islam is "a terrorist network aimed at destabilizing Lebanon." Adding to the complicated situation in Lebanon was a bomb attack on Wednesday in western Beirut, which killed 10 people including Lebanese lawmaker Walid Aido. |
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