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“Your organisation, founded in the year of the great victory over nazism, has taken a worthy place in the new system of international relations based on the United Nations Charter”, Mr Putin’s message reads. “Over the past decades, the League of Arab States has become an authoritative and influential regional organisation that is committed to the norms of international law, above all in questions of peace, security and social development in the Middle East and North Africa.

Russia follows closely the dynamic development of events in this region. The democratic elections held in the Palestinian territories in January 2005, and the following summit of Sharm el Sheikh, have created good conditions for the resumption of the political process between Israelis and Palestinians. Along with our partners in the quartet of international intermediaries, we are ready to continue taking an active part in fulfilling the agreements aimed at fully implementing the Roadmap and leading to the creation of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state coexisting with Israel in peace and security.

Comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict is possible only if Israel, Syria and Lebanon renew their efforts to achieve peace based on a solid international-legal platform, including the League of Arab States’ Beirut peace initiative. It is important that the positive developments emerging in Palestinian-Israeli affairs not be cancelled out by the emergence of new hotbeds of tension in the region, including an escalation of the situation in Lebanon and the situation with Syria. The practical steps the Syrian government is undertaking in coordination with Lebanon to fulfil the Taif Agreements, UN Security Council resolution 1559 and other relevant UN decisions should help to improve the situation.

Russia also considers that the elections that took place in Iraq, despite all the complexity of the situation in which they were held, were also an important step in developing the political process set out in UN Security Council resolution 1546. The country now has an elected representative body – the Transitional National Assembly. We hope that the new government formed by the parliament will be able to win the confidence and support of the majority of Iraqis. For this to happen, the rebuilding of Iraq’s legitimate bodies of state power must be reinforced by the establishment of a nationwide public dialogue aimed at bringing about national reconciliation and concord. We, for our part, are ready to work in close contact with our Arab partners to do all we can to help this.

We reaffirm our constant commitment to expanding our multifaceted cooperation with the League of Arab States and mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation with all its participants in the interests of peace, security and sustainable development.”