UAE attends meeting of permanent representatives to League of Arab States; Libya relief fund proposed

CAIRO, 10th January, 2017 (WAM) -- Juma Mubarak Al Junaibi, the UAE Ambassador to Egypt and Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States, has attended the consultative meeting of permanent representatives to the League, held in Cairo on Tuesday. During the meeting, the representatives listened to proposal presented by Ambassador Salahuddin Al Jamali, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to Libya. The proposal featured his work plan for the next phase. Al Jamali called for establishing an Arab fund to provide relief and humanitarian aid to the Libyan people. He also said he would visit Libya next week for this purpose. At the opening session, held under the chairmanship of Tunisia and in the presence of Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League, Al Jamali proposed the establishment of an Arab fund to support the Libyan people. While half a million Libyans have been displaced, half of the Libyan people live below the poverty line, he noted. "This fund may help move the political dimension as the presence of the Arab League on the ground can increase its political effectiveness," he said. Al Jamali underlined that Martin Kobler, Special Representative, Head of the United Nations (UN) Support Mission in Libya, feels that the Arab role is useful for the UN because there are problems that the Arabs understand better. He put forward some ideas, which he said, could be helpful to speed up the political settlement in Libya, and noted that Libyans are looking forward to stronger Arab role in Libya. He, however, stressed the UN’s key role that had resulted into the Skhirat Agreement, reached by the Libyans after two years of marathon negotiations. . – Emirates News Agency, WAM - http://now.wam.ae/en/news/emirates-international/1395305714889.html