Its Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Thursday, President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, Speaker of Parliament Nabil Beri as well as the people of Lebanon, appreciated Malaysia's efforts in organising the meeting to discuss the situation in Lebanon and Palestine.

He said despite international pressure demanding that Israel stop their aggression in Lebanon, the Jewish regime continued with its violence, resulting in the deaths of many innocent civilians. Over the past three weeks, 800 people had died, 3,000 injured, mostly women and children, while 900,000 more or a quarter of Lebanon's population fled their country as a result of Israeli attacks, he said at a special meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) here.

Salloukh also repeated Lebanon's seven-point proposal to resolve the conflict, which was presented by Siniora at the meeting in Rome recently. He also asked the United Nations Security Council to view the Israeli aggression seriously and urged the world body to implement an immediate ceasefire.He said Lebanon was confident that the meeting would come up with a resolution demanding an end to the bloodshed, as was now taking place in Qana and other places in the country due to the Israeli attacks.

The one-day meeting today, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is expected to come up with a resolution to pressure for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and also for the establishment of a peacekeeping force under the UN umbrella.

Source: Bernama.com