Arab follow up committee meets today in Damascus

The two day meetings of the Arab follow Arab committee emerged from the recent Beirut summit will start today in Damascus. It concentrates on means of halting the Israeli acts in Palestine and any likely American attack against Iraq.

In a statement upon his arrival yesterday in Damascus, the Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Maher said that the "meetings will deal with the exerted efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the region, according to the Arab peace initiative which was approved during the Beirut Arab summit in March this year." Maher continued, in the presence of the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara who welcomed him at the Damascus airport, that "we will also discuss the Palestinian question, and the aggression imposed on the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces as well as issues that are of concern for the Arab nation." Maher also stressed the need of Iraq's commitment to the implementation of the UN security council resolutions and stressed the Arab stances to end the Iraqi crisis by diplomatic means and avoiding Iraq any military attack," according to the Syrian official news agency SANA.