Support voiced for peace conference on Middle East

UN Chronicle, Dec, 1991

Participants in two special UN meetings concerned with Palestinian rights have supported the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East under UN auspices.

The meetings, both held in Vienna, were the eighth International Non-governmental Organization (NGO) Meeting on the Question of Palestine (28-30 August), and the fifth European Regional NGO Symposium on the Question of Palestine (26-27 August).

Participants included representatives of NGOs, Governments, organizations from Israel and the occupied territories, intergovernmental organizations, and UN specialized agencies and bodies.

Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, in a message to the International NGO Meeting, expressed concern over the "volatile" situation in the Middle East, including the continued uprising in the occupied territories--the intifadah.

The President of the forty-fifth General Assembly, Guido de Marco of Malta, told the Meeting that events in the Gulf had led to accusations of "double standards" on the part of the international community in resolving outstanding issues. It was imperative that more attention and efforts be directed towards a solution of the Palestinian problem, he concluded.