MANAMA, The preparatory ministerial meeting for the 33rd Arab Summit, due on Thursday, kick-started in Manama on Tuesday with conferees set to examine the summit draft agenda that addresses issues related to joint action and various topics, namely Palestine.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani took over the summit chairmanship from his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who had headed the 32nd session, amid attendance of Arab League Secretary General Ahmad Abul-Ghait and the State of Kuwait Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Al-Yahya, who was on top of his country’s delegation.
The ministers are looking into draft agenda of the forthcoming Arab Summit and final statement of the top-level Arab conference. The draft agenda includes eight main topics related to common Arab action in the political, economic, social, cultural, media and security realms, in addition to cooperation with regional and international blocs.
Among the issues on the table are the Palestinian cause, prospects
of activating the Arab Peace Initiative, the Israeli occupation breaches in the occupied Jerusalem, supporting the State of Palestine’s budget and the Palestinian people’s steadfastness.
Also according to the draft agenda, the summiteers are scheduled to follow up on the Israeli occupation’s settlement schemes, the racial discrimination wall, plights of the Palestinian prisoners and the refugees, issues related to the humanitarian mission of the UN agency for the refugees, the UNRWA, developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and Syria’s Arab Golan.
They will also look into other topics such as solidarity with Lebanon, developments in Syria, supporting peace in Sudan, conditions in Libya and Yemen, backing Somalia, the Union of Comoros and a proposed settlement to the border strife between Djibouti and Eritrea.
Moreover in the summit schedule are Iran’s occupation of the UAE three islands, Iran’s intervention in domestic affairs of the Arab states, taking a unified stand vis a vis Turkish forces’
breaches of Iraq’s sovereignty, Turkish meddling in Arab countries’ local issues and the Ethiopian dam question.
At the international level, it addresses the second Arab-Chinese Summit due to be hosted by Beijing, establishing a partnership forum between the Arab League and Asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, supporting Egypt’s nomination of Dr. Khaled Al-Anani for the director general’s post of the UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Furthermore, the agenda includes various economic, social, media and legal files as well as the climatic change issue, the Arab human rights strategy and the common anti-terrorism strategy, The other scheduled topics are maintaining the Arab nation’s security, fighting terrorism, setting up an Arab organization for combating terrorism, resolutions filed by the Council of Economic and Social Affairs and the planned final statement of the summit.
Preparatory meetings for the summit started in Bahrain last Saturday.
Sour
ce: Kuwait News Agency