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Vladimir Putting sent his greetings to participants of a top-level pan-Arab meeting – the heads of state and government of the League of Arab States (LAS) member states. Saudi Arabia is hosting the LAS summit this year.
The message from the President of the Russian Federation reads, in part:
“Your meeting is being held against a background of a very complicated situation in the Middle East and North Africa. Armed conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen continue to take away human lives and are accompanied by a severe deterioration of the social and economic environment.
These challenges require coordinated collective efforts on the part of the international community and naturally increase the importance of such multi-lateral structures as the League of Arab States.
Russia is ready to develop cooperation with the League of Arab States by all possible means to ensure regional safety. I expect that, in the conditions that have taken shape following the devastation of ISIS’s main forces in Syria and Iraq, we will be able to facilitate the activisation of a political settlement and post-conflict restoration in these countries, while solving vital humanitarian tasks.
At the same time, the struggle against terrorist groups should be sustained, all the while showing unwavering respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Arab states.
We proceed from the fact that long-term normalisation of the situation in the Middle East is impossible without the fundamental resolution of the Palestinian issue. Russia’s position remains unaltered: all issues dealing with the status of Palestinian areas, including Jerusalem, must be settled within direct Palestinian-Israeli talks, which are to be based on the universally recognised foundation provided by international law, including the corresponding resolutions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly as well as the peaceful initiative approved by the League of Arab States.
I am convinced that further extension of the partnership between Russia and the League of Arab States meets our common interests, and will be in line with the consolidation of peace and stability on our planet.”
April 15, 2018