Arab environment conference opened in Cairo

Works of the 20th session of the executive bureau of the Arab ministers council in charge of environment affairs started on Wednesday with the participation of Arab environment ministers in Syria, Kuwait, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco.

The Arab League's assistant secretary general for economic affairs, Abdul Rahman al-Sheibani, said in a statement that the bureau will discuss several issues pertaining to Arab common environmental action, environmental criteria that should be available for exchanged commodities in the frame of the free trade zone and cooperation prospects with international organizations in this respect.

Meanwhile, Saudi deputy defense minister and chairman of the meetings of the current session, Prince Fahd Bin Abdullah al-Saud, recommended in a report not to allow Israel to join the Asian group in the frame of the international agreement to fight desertification. The report submitted by Prince Fahd also called for continued Arab efforts to stop Israeli attempts to join the seventh appendix of the Basel accord on transferring dangerous wastes and disposing of them.

He stressed that excluding Israel from the embargo imposed by the accord constitutes a danger to the environment of the occupied lands and neighboring countries.