The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), Sen. Francesco Maria Amoruso (Italy), accompanied by a high level delegation, attended and contributed to the meetings and the General Debate of the High-Level Segment of the 69th session of the General Assembly, from 22 to 27 September 2014, and to the Climate Summit 2014, which was held in New York on 23 September 2014, under the auspices of UN Secretary General and US President, Barak Obama.
The PAM delegation was composed of Sen. Lhou Lmarbouh, PAM Vice President, Hon. Mohammed Abu El Enein, PAM Honorary President, Amb. Sergio Piazzi, PAM Secretary General, Mr. Mourad Youssry, Deputy to PAM Secretary General for Assembly Affairs.
PAM held a series of bilateral meetings with UN Senior Officials in relation to the current crises affecting the Mediterranean Region; namely, the latest developments in the Middle East, the situation in Syria and the political instability in Libya.
The Mission to New York was held in preparation of the PAM Middle East visit scheduled to take place by the end of 2014, and will include stops in Cairo, Gaza, Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Golan Heights.
The visit to the UN HQ also represented a good opportunity to share and measure the outcome of a number of PAM missions in 2014, such as the consultations in Moscow and Cairo, and the political and humanitarian efforts mobilized during the Gaza Crisis, and the outbreak of the new political crisis in Tripoli.
An overview of PAM future activates was also given to UN Officials in order to synchronize the efforts with regards to specific programmes. The exchange of views with senior UN officials resulted extremely fruitful in portraying the current situation on the ground, and to envisage targeted actions that PAM, through its Parliamentary Network, could undertake under the mandate of its Bureau and its 1st Standing Committee on Political and Security Cooperation.
The mission to New York represented also an important opportunity to discuss, in detail, with H.E. Amb. Raimonda Murmokaitė, Chair of the Counter Terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council and Mr Jean-Paul Laborde, UN ASG/Executive Director of Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), UN/PAM cooperation under the provisions of UNSC Resolution 2178 of 24 September 2014. In particular, PAM was requested by the UNSC, to jointly set up a cooperation platform for the organisation of a Parliamentary programme, to start in early 2015, on Counter Terrorism Legislation, addressed in its initial phase to the 5 Maghreb countries, and with support of MPs and experts from other PAM members.
In New York, the PAM delegation also met with Mr. Herve Ladsous, UN USG for Peace Keeping Operations, and with three senior Special Representatives of the UN Secretary General responsible for the most critical areas in the region, namely: Amb. Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East; Amb. Bernardino Leon, UNSG Special Representative to Libya; and Amb. Staffan de Mistura, UNSG Special Envoy to Syria. Other meetings were held with Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, UN ASG for Humanitarian Affairs and USG Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization.
During the General Debate of the High-Level Segment of the 69th session of the General Assembly, the PAM delegation had also the opportunity to meet with a number of Heads of States and Governments, and Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The meetings gave the opportunity to discuss the regional situation, the developments in the Peace talks, and the impact of the Syrian conflict in view of the rise of ISIL. These exchanges of views included H.E. Mr. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Arab Republic of Egypt; H.R.H. Albert II, Prince of Monaco; H.E. Dr. Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta, H.E. Dr. George Vella, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Malta; H.E. Ms. Federica Mogherini, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy; H.E. Mr. Nasser Judeh, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Jordan; H.E. Dr. Fayez Tarawneh, Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan; H.E. Mr. Walid Al-Moualem, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Syria; H.E. Mr. Mongi Hamdi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Tunisia; and Major General Luciano Portolano, Head of Mission and Force Commander, UN Interim Force in Lebanon.