BARCELONA, Spain, Oct 8, 2018 - Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri has emphasised that the Mediterranean region is facing several challenges that undermine the process of co-operation and integration for achieving sustainable development. The foreign minister's remarks came in his speech at the third Union for the Mediterranean Regional Forum which kicked off in Barcelona on Monday. FM Shoukri said that there is a pressing need for exerting more efforts in order to overcome these challenges, especially including political clashes and armed conflicts in Syria and Libya that are causing the exclusion of these two countries from being fully integrated within the frameworks of regional co-operation until now, taking into consideration their capabilities and promising energies. Egypt, he added, had earlier asserted that solving the crises that the two countries are facing passes only through the restoration of the national state institutions since these represent all the society's segments and components which express the legitimate ambitions of the Syrian and Libyan peoples and support a political solution in both countries under the leadership of the United Nations. "This gathering represents a further opportunity to assert our unity behind a political solution that is being sponsored by the United Nations as the only way that cannot be replaced with parallel efforts or approaches," the foreign minister told the gathering. FM Shoukri also highlighted that no talks about technical co-operation should be made without starting a political treatment of the oldest conflict in the region which is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. "Frankly speaking, it is not acceptable that the ordeal of the Palestinian people continues at a time when frameworks and determinants of the possible, just and comprehensive political settlement are being known to everyone," FM Shoukri said. He added, "We all have to convey a clear message of the necessity of resuming negotiations over issues of final solution and putting an end to one of the most important causes of instability in the Middle East and the Mediterranean ." The third UfM Regional Forum kicked off in Barcelona on Monday. On the sidelines of the forum, the foreign minister held intensive meetings with his counterparts from Spain, Malta and Mauritania and a number of European Union officials. During the meetings, the foreign minister discussed ways of boosting bilateral relations and reviewed issues of mutual concern.
