The Palestinian representative at the council of Arab interior ministers in Tunis, Freih Abu Medein, clashed with his Syrian counterpart Tuesday over the issue of support for the Intifada, reported AFP Wednesday.
Palestinian justice minister Abu Medein left the meeting-room in anger after Syrian interior minister, Mohamed Harba, opposed the use of the terms "Palestinian Authority" and "Palestine Liberation Organization" (PLO), when the council was examining the adoption of a measure to support the Intifada, said the agency.
"It is our Syrian brothers who negate the very terms "PLO" and "Palestinian Authority", a furious Abu Medein cried as he was ushered out of the stormy conference-room and into one of the lounges of the hotel which hosted the meeting.
The Saudi, Iraqi, Sudanese and Tunisian ministers followed him out of the room, shortly before the final session of the 18th annual meeting of Arab interior ministers, which has been held behind closed doors since Monday.
Together with the Syrian minister and Saudi Prince Nayef bin Abdelaziz, the group convinced the Palestinian official to rejoin the meeting by announcing a compromise had been reached on the terminology, said the agency.
The final document says maximum "support and assistance should be given to the heroes of the Intifada and to the PLO, in conformity with what had been decided at the October 21 and 22 summit in Cairo".
The council, permanently based in Tunis, will meet in Lebanon in 2002, said AFP adding that it elected a new secretary general, Saudi Arabia's, Mohamed Ali Kuman.
Lebanon's interior minister, Michele Murr called the decision to let Beirut hold the conference an “important event,” said the Daily Star newspaper.
Speaking to reporters following the decision, Murr remarked that the conference was “considered among the most important gatherings, after Arab summits.”
Murr, who will chair the meeting, will be the first Lebanese official to preside over an Arab interior ministers’ meeting and will be the youngest interior minister to do so, the paper added.
Murr said choosing Beirut as a venue for the conference “underlined Lebanon’s role in the Arab world and affirmed that stability and security prevailed” in the country.
He added that the security situation in Lebanon was “among the best in the Arab countries and the world, as proven by statistics and research institutions,” according to the paper -- Albawaba.com
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