Lebanese President to address UNGA on Sept.20

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is to stress the right of a Palestinian statehood at a UN General Assembly, as Lebanon takes over rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council for this month. President Suleiman will travel to New York this month and is to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, the Presidential Palace spokesman Idib abi Akel said here on Friday. Lebanon took over the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council from India on Thursday, for the second time since it became a member in January 2010. Lebanon''s As Safir daily said on Friday that Suleiman would stress the right of Palestinians to establish an independent state with Jerusalem its capital. He will also reject their naturalization and call for the return of refugees to their home state. Suleiman is scheduled to chair a council meeting on preventive diplomacy on Sept. 22, Lebanese daily an Nahar said. Official sources also denied to al-Liwaa newspaper that Suleiman will chair a Council meeting on Sept. 20 during which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would ask for the agency to approve his bid for a Palestinian state. That session will be chaired by Ambassador Nawwaf Salam, they said. For his part, Salam told An Nahar daily that he was seeking to introduce "preventive diplomacy" to the agenda of the council. "This concept includes means and diplomatic measures taken in advance to prevent the eruption of conflicts or stop them from spreading." Asked about the Palestinian bid to join the U.N. as a state, Salam said that Lebanon would be at the forefront of those backing the attempt. "If any state proposed (the discussion) of the Syrian issue, we hold onto the rules and procedures mentioned in the Security Council’s by-laws and we would implement them", he told An Nahar. Lebanon''s ambassador to the UN, Nawwaf Salam, would chair the UN General Assembly session, he said. Salam was quoted Friday in the daily An Nahar newspaper as saying Lebanon would seek to introduce "preventive diplomacy" to the Security Council agenda.