Catherine Ashton meets with Nabil Al Araby, Secretary General of the League of Arab States

EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 20 March 2012

A 134/12

Statement by High Representative Catherine Ashton following

her meeting with Nabil Al Araby, Secretary General of the

League of Arab States

Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security

Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, issued the following statement today:

“On Monday, I met the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Dr Nabil Al Araby. The

EU's relations with the LAS are essential for our engagement in our common neighbourhood. Since

I took office we have intensified our cooperation and dialogue on many matters of common interest

and I am grateful for the excellent cooperation with Dr Al Araby.

Above all, we discussed the appalling situation in Syria. I reaffirmed our strong support for the LAS

plan. We agreed that the most urgent priority should be to stop the killing and reiterated once more

our call on the regime to stop all acts of violence. Members of the UNSC should assume their

responsibilities and speak with a strong and united voice to achieve this.

I reiterated the EU’s full support to the efforts of the Special Envoy of the United Nations and the

Arab League, Kofi Annan. We are determined to support his efforts to bring an end to all violence

and human rights violations and promote a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

The Syrian regime needs to continue to engage with Kofi Annan and fully cooperate with him. We

also discussed the humanitarian situation and both expressed our support for the work of the UN

Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, and reiterated our call for unhindered humanitarian

access.

We discussed the Middle East Peace Process, which remains high on the EU's agenda. On

Wednesday, I will be hosting the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting. I will also meet the Quartet

envoys to follow- up on last week's Principal's meeting."

____________________

P R E S S

FOR FURTHER DETAILS:

Michael Mann +32 498 999 780 - +32 2 299 97 80 - [email protected]

Maja Kocijancic +32 498 984 425 - +32 2 298 65 70 - [email protected]

Sebastien Brabant +32 498 986 433 - [email protected]

[email protected]

www.eeas.europa.eu

EN

بيان حول لقاء الممثلة العليا كاثرين أشتون الأمين العام لجامعة الدول العربية نبيل العربي، تناول الوضع المروع في سورية وضرورة تعاون النظام مع كوفي عنان.