U.N. General Assembly Resumes Emergency Special Session on MideastThe emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the Middle East resumed Friday afternoon at the U.N. headquarters in New York.The emergency special session, which opened and adjourned Wednesday, was convened at the request of the League of Arab Nations, backed by the Nonaligned Movement. There is a long list of speakers on Friday's session. According to the spokeswoman for the president of the General Assembly, Susan Markham, some 50 nations, including China, Russia, France and the United States, will address the session. She said there is a possibility that the session will not end Friday evening and may continue sometime next week. The League of Arab Nations has submitted a draft resolution to the General Assembly which they expect to be adopted by the end of the session. The Arab nations want the General Assembly to condemn acts of violence and the excessive use of force by Israeli troops against Palestinian civilians. The decisions made by the General Assembly are non-binding. The recent clashes between Israelis and Palestinians erupted after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited a Jerusalem holy shine on September 28. More than 100 people have been killed in the violence. The wave of violence is widely seen as a serious blow to the ongoing peace process in the Middle East. |
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