The UN Security Council is to hold discussions later on Wednesday on ways to co-operate with the Arab League on conflict resolution, particularly with situation in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring.
The meeting, attended mostly by foreign ministers of the 15 countries that are council members, was arranged by Germany which currently holds the rotating presidency.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will preside.
Both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, as well as the foreign ministers of the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and China, the five permanent council members, are to attend.
A concept paper written by Berlin on UN-Arab League cooperation said the meeting aims to “strengthen the relationship between the two organisations in their common efforts for peace and stability in the Middle East.”
The document said the UN is “strongly''engaged in the Arab world, whilst the Arab League was working actively for the resolution of
a number of conflicts in Syria, Libya, Yemen and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The UN-Arab League co-operation “encompasses the whole range of conflict prevention and resolution, thus looking at peace-making, peace-keeping and peace-building as well as disarmament and combating organised crime, terrorism and drug trafficking,” the paper said.