Putin urges LAS countries to use all authority for Syrian settlement success

MOSCOW, March 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the member countries of the League of Arab States (LAS) to use all their authority in order to complete the Syrian settlement process. The RF head of state wrote this in his greeting message to the participants in the pan-Arab summit that opened in Kuwait on Tuesday. “We believe it is important to continue the negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition, launched in Montreux within the Geneva-2 international conference, which should yield concrete agreements on all the issues, determined in the Geneva Communiqué of June 30, 2012,” Putin said. “We urge you to use the LAS authority and potential with this aim in view,” he added. The RF president confirmed that “Russia intends to strengthen partnership with the LAS for the promotion of peace, security and stability in the region.” “We pay special attention in this regard to political-diplomatic settlement of conflicts and crisis situations with respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries,” Putin noted. “I am convinced that the earliest and comprehensive settlement of old regional conflicts, first of all the Arab-Israeli conflict, would noticeably promote normalisation in the Middle East and North Africa,” Putin stressed. “Russia will continue to work for a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian problem on the way to the creation of an independent, viable, territorially integral Palestinian state, coexisting in peace and security with its neighbours,” he stated. Putin stressed that at present the Arab world “is going through a very important development stage, accompanied by complex political and socio-economic developments.” “In these conditions the constructive role of the League of Arab States - a significant mechanism of a multilateral dialogue, collective settlement of important issues of the regional agenda, is needed more than ever,” he noted, confirming Russia’s readiness to boost partnership relations with the League of Arab States. The intergovernmental regional organisation League of Arab States was founded on March 22, 1945 at a conference of the Arab states in Cairo with the participation of seven countries: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan (currently Jordan) and Yemen. In 1950, the LAS was recognised by the UN as a regional organisation and got the observer status at the United Nations. The LAS at present comprises 22 states. The previous, 24th LAS summit was held in Doha (Qatar) on March 26 -27, 2013.