- Title: EGYPT: Arab League chief hopes Lebanese-Palestinian talks will end camp clashes
- Date: 23rd May 2007
- Summary: (BN11) CAIRO, EGYPT (MAY 22, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY-GENERAL AMR MOUSSA WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF ARAB LEAGUE STATES
- Embargoed: 7th June 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA9TAKZMKXINO0NRDV41023WN7S
- Story Text: The head of the Arab League said he hoped talks between Palestinian and Lebanese leaders would put an immediate end to fighting at a Palestinian refugee camp that has killed dozens.
The head of the Arab League said on Tuesday (May 22) he hoped talks between Palestinian and Lebanese leaders would put an immediate end to fighting between the Lebanese army and fighters in a Palestinian refugee camp that has killed dozens.
League Secretary-General Amr Moussa spoke after an Arab League meeting in Cairo, as a tentative ceasefire took hold between Palestinian militants and the Lebanese Army who had been fighting around a refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
League representatives met to discuss the crisis in Lebanon as well as Israeli raids on Gaza and fighting there among Palestinian groups.
The Lebanese Army shelled the Nahr al-Bared camp in northern Lebanon for a third day on Tuesday to try to flush out Islamist militants, as concern grew for the plight of 40,000 civilians trapped inside.
The army says it is attacking Fatah al-Islam, a small al Qaeda-inspired Sunni group that made its base in the camp last year.
The group is said to have little local support, but the firepower used by the army on the crowded camp has begun to anger Palestinians.
Residents of Nahr al-Bared appealed for fighting to stop, saying there were dead and wounded lying in the streets.
At least 22 militants, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been killed since the army and Fatah al-Islam began fighting on Sunday, making it Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. Fifty-five soldiers have been wounded.
In Cairo, Moussa said he hoped talks between Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and senior Palestinian leaders would put an end to the crisis.
"So we are aware of the talks between all the Lebanese and the Palestinian leaders. We hope that the whole thing will be put behind our backs as soon possible, and immediately in fact, not as soon as possible, but immediately. And that is the gist of what we have decided today," he told reporters.
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