African and Arab MPs conclude deliberations

The final report of the second meeting of the follow-up committee of the Afro-Arab Parliamentary conference, which concluded on Monday, approved the conference's draft agenda which includes the role of African parliaments in supporting the Middle East peace process and the implementation of the UN resolutions including those pertaining to maintaining the legal status of Jerusalem.

The draft agenda also called for encouraging investments in Africa and in the Arab world, boosting scientific and cultural exchange between African and Arab countries, and supporting the Palestinian National Council's demand to obtain full membership in the International Parliamentary Union.

The committee recommended that the next conference should make decisions on some topics already discussed in previous meetings such as the need to distinguish between terrorism and people's legal struggle for liberation and lifting the blockades imposed on some member states.

The committee also recommended adding the following items: intensifying cooperation and consultation between African and Arab parliamentary delegations, creating an information body to monitor the political situation in dispute-riddled areas, organizing specialized parliamentary symposia on topics of interest to both sides, considering the Afro-Arab parliamentary conference as an independent body, and getting government and parliamentary coordination go together between African and Arab countries.