"To uphold goodwill for an end of confrontation and for talks resumed matters more than anything else," he stressed while addressing the League of Arab States on its headquarters.
The President thanked the LAS top for today's conference. "I regard it as a great honor and privilege to have the rostrum from which I can put forward Russia's stance on the progress of its contacts with the LAS and with Arab countries," he said.
"Russia regards the League of Arab States as principal organization of the Arab world. Moscow attentively follows LAS activities, and shares its viewpoint on historical traditions as basis of democratic progress in the Middle East," the President went on.
"Efforts to buttress civil society institutions and multi-partisan arrangements are to go on without interference from without," Mr. Putin emphatically warned.
He called the LAS to offer support to Syria's President, on whose initiative his country is pulling out its troops from Lebanon.
"Please notice that the Syrian President is true on his pledge of the pullout from Lebanon. As we know, contradictory developments are accompanying it in Lebanon and in the Syrian nation alike. That alone makes it necessary to encourage the Syrian President, and show him that there is an understanding for what he is doing.
"Syrian and Lebanese problem solution ought to come as support for Middle East settlement. It will not be all-round and lasting settlement, otherwise. We have always been saying so," pointed out Mr. Putin.
He called the League of Arab States to accredit the Russian Ambassador to Egypt as Russian representative to the League, with an HQ in Cairo.
The LAS opened its office in Moscow even in the early 1990s, "and it is pleasant to see our contacts get on a regular footing," added Russia's President.
