Report: Ban Will Not Attend Arab Summit in Damascus

by **Admin** Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:48 pm

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will not attend the Arab Summit in Damascus later this month, a U.N. official said on Thursday.

"He (Ban) just met the leaders during the OIC summit in Dakar, Senegal," the official told Kuwait News Agency, KUNA.

The invitation was extended to Ban during his meetings with Arab ambassadors, including the Syrian, to raise "concerns over recent reports and statements on the Middle East," the official said.

The crisis in Lebanon -- where Syria was the dominant political and military force for decades -- is set to dominate the Arab summit in Damascus on March 29-30 although it is not clear how many Arab states will attend.

Lebanon has been gripped by its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war with rival political factions unable to agree on a successor to former president Emile Lahoud who stepped down in November.

The Lebanese parliament is scheduled to meet on March 25 to elect a new head of state after 16 previous attempts have been postponed.