...

Russia's president holding talks with Arab League leader

Other News Materials 7 February 2007 17:00 (UTC +04:00)

(www.itar-tass.com) вЂ" President Vladimir Putin is having a meeting with Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (Arab League), who ends his visit to Moscow on Wednesday. The meeting is taking place in the presidential residence of Novo-Ogarevo.

The meeting, at which Putin and Amr Moussa are sure to discuss the situation in the Middle East, is important for one more reason: later this week the Russian President leaves for a tour of a number of Middle East countries вЂ" Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan. Amr Moussa will soon go to Lebanon on a mediation mission.

The Arab League leader held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday. After a detailed discussion the parties supported the idea of the convocation of another international conference on the Middle East. Amr Moussa and Lavrov discussed as well the initiative on the drafting of a new conceptual framework of security in the Persian Gulf area, reports Trend.

Amr Moussa, who met Putin for the first time in February 2000, when he was foreign minister of Egypt, has a liking for Russia. The Arab world has special friendly feelings for Russia, he told Itar-Tass on the eve of his visit to Moscow. We closely follow Russia's behaviour in the U.N. Security Council and its relations with Arabs, or with the Middle East countries in general, he said. We realise that Russia plays a very important role in the region, that it understands well its problems and peculiarities and that it pursues an impartial policy here, unlike many other countries, whose actions do not satisfy us.

Amr Moussa stressed that we have mutual understanding with Russia on many problems. This is confirmed by the fact that the leaders of Arab countries regularly pay visits to Moscow for the purpose of coordinating actions in the settlement of various problems, he believes.

The previous meeting of Putin and Amr Moussa took place in Egypt in April 2005, when the Russian President paid a visit to Cairo. Putin said that time that Russia regards the Arab League as the key, the main organisation in the Arab world. We are going to further develop relations with the Arab League, and we are grateful to its Secretary-General for supporting our intentions and for promoting in every way the development of relations between Russia and the Arab League, the Russian leader said.

Latest

Latest