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Lebanese speaker urges Arab parliament speakers to meet immediately in Lebanon

Other News Materials 28 December 2008 20:37 (UTC +04:00)

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called Sunday for an urgent meeting of Arab parliament speakers to be held in southern Lebanon, local Elnashra website reported.

Berri, one of Arab heads of Parliaments, urged for a meeting to discuss the drastic developments in the Gaza Strip, the report said, Xinhua reported.

The Lebanese speaker received Sunday afternoon at his residence a joint Palestinian delegation including Hamas representative Ousama Hamdan, Palestinian Liberation Organization representative Abbas Zaki, and representatives of other Palestinian factions in Lebanon.

Berri, a Shiite ally of Hezbollah, during the war in July, 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, refused to allow a visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Lebanon.

Since Saturday morning, Israel has been carrying out unprecedented intensive airstrikes on Hamas movement targets, killing 285 Palestinians, most of them militants and wounding over 900 people.

While Egyptian Middle East News Agency reported that the Interim Arab Parliament (IAP) will hold an emergency session next Sunday to discuss the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.

It said IAP Speaker Mohamed Jassem al-Saqr called for the emergency meeting. He has been holding contacts with regional parliament officials to get Israel to end the air aggression on Gaza.

The Arab League also called an emergency summit but has not decided where and when to hold it.

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