UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21, 2006 (AFP) - The UN Security Council, acting at the request of Arab countries, holds a rare ministerial meeting here Thursday to discuss how to revive the stalled Middle East peace process.
The meeting, set to start at 3:30 pm (1930 GMT), will be attended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN chief Kofi Annan and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas among others. It was unclear whether Israel would be represented.
The 22-member Arab League wants a speedy revival of direct negotiations under Security Council auspices on several tracks: Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and Syria and Israel and Lebanon.
Arab countries hope that the 15-member council will at least issue a statement spelling out a mechanism to ensure implementation of the international roadmap for the creation of an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.
But the roadmap, drafted by the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- has made virtually no progress since its launch in 2003.
'What matters is that the roadmap determines where we will end up,' Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheith told reporters here Wednesday after a meeting of Arab ministers here.
His Bahraini counterpart Khaled ben Ahmed al-Khalifa is set to address the council on behalf of the 22-member Arab League, the Egyptian minister said.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa noted that Thursday's council ministerial session is the first to be held at the request of the Arab group in 'nearly 16 years'.
Khalifa said the Arabs 'wanted to speak to the Security Council with one voice to urge it to get fully involved to revive the peace process and put it back on track.'
The meeting comes a day after the Quartet voiced its strong support for a bid by Abbas to form a government with Hamas, even though the radical Islamic group still refuses to recognise Israeli's right to exist.
The Quartet also announced an agreement to extend for three months temporary emergency aid for the Palestinian territories, which are now ruled by a Hamas-led administration.
US President George W. Bush and Rice, who both support Abbas and met with him in New York this week, have voiced deep skepticism about the formation of a government joining his Fatah Party and Hamas.
But Rice still signed on to the Quartet statement that specifically 'welcomed the efforts of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to form a government of national unity' with the Islamic militants.
A statement issued following a meeting of Quartet foreign ministers here Wednesday appeared to mark a softening of Washington's tough stance on Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization.
The statement went on to say that the backing for the Abbas's plan was based on the hope that the new government's platform would 'reflect' Quartet demands that Hamas renounce violence, recognise Israel and comply with previous Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.
Abbas told Bush here Wednesday that the Palestinians, who face their worst fiscal and political crisis in years, were in 'dire need' of US help.
Bush recommitted himself to US-backed efforts to create a Palestinian state living side by side at peace with Israel, but made no public offers to end the international boycott of the Palestinian government led by Hamas 'militants'.
Bush called the two-state Middle East peace solution 'one of the great objectives of my administration' and took pains to praise Abbas.