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Greetings to Arab League heads of state and government

July 25, 2016

Vladimir Putin sent his greetings to the heads of state and government of the Arab League member countries.

The President said, in particular, in his message:

“Your meeting has a very substantial agenda. This is due, of course, to the escalation in many problems that the Middle East and North Africa have faced of late. State institutions have weakened in a number of countries, socioeconomic difficulties have increased, and there has been an upsurge in extremism and religious intolerance. This means there is greater need than ever for the Arab League’s constructive role as an important mechanism for multilateral dialogue and collective decision-making.

I want to reaffirm that Russia is ready to do all it can to strengthen cooperation with the Arab League in ensuring regional security, above all, in combating the international terrorism threat. Our position is that efforts to combat terrorism must go hand-in-hand with work towards political settlement of the crisis situations in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and other hotspots, based on respect for all countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity and through inclusive dialogue and national consensus.

We will continue to provide all possible assistance in resolving the problem in Palestine, working through bilateral channels and through various multilateral groups. We consider the current status quo unacceptable and call for efforts to ensure the swift relaunch of negotiations on the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state with territorial integrity, its capital in East Jerusalem, and living in peaceful coexistence with its neighbours.

I am sure that developing partnership ties between Russia and the Arab League in the spirit of the decisions taken at the February meeting of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Moscow will play a big part in ensuring international stability.”

July 25, 2016