Damascus Summit Opens Saturday Boycotted by Half of Arab World Leaders

by **Admin** Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:17 am

The Arab summit, boycotted this year by half of the Arab world's leaders who blame Syria for the political crisis in Lebanon, opens in Damascus on Saturday amid a sharp split among the 22-member Arab League's heads of state.

The leaders of U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will not be attending, an absence touted by Syria as a triumph over American influence.

"They (the United States) did their best to prevent the summit but they failed," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told reporters on the eve of the two-day gathering. "Their aim is to divide the Arab world."

"Tomorrow there will be a very successful summit," he added.

Washington last week urged its Arab allies in the region to think twice before attending the summit, accusing Syria of blocking the election of a new president in Lebanon.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is due to host the leaders of Algeria, the Comoros, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates -- only half of the league's presidents.

Egypt is sending a junior minister while powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Jordan will be represented by their ambassadors to the Arab League. Lebanon has boycotted the summit altogether.
"There will be no trace of the United States on the summit's work or agenda," Muallem told his counterparts ahead of the summit.

Lebanon has been without a president since the end of November and has been mired in political crisis for more than a year because of feuding between the parliamentary majority and the Hizbullah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran.

In a televised address on Friday ahead of the summit, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora said his government had decided to boycott the meeting because of Syrian meddling in his country's affairs.
"Lebanon has had a presidential void for more than four months.

Before and during that period Syria played a leading role to exacerbate the crisis... interfering in Lebanon's internal affairs and blocking the election of the consensus candidate to the presidency," he said.
The daily An Nahar on Saturday said Arab League chief Amr Moussa will hold talks with Arab foreign ministers on Lebanon, particularly after Saniora accused Syria of hampering the election of a President.

The Lebanese crisis, the worst since the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war, is widely seen as an extension of the conflict pitting the United States and its regional allies against Syria and Iran.
On Thursday, Muallem called on Riyadh to use its influence to help solve the problem.

"Saudi Arabia must use its influence over the majority in Lebanon to help find a solution," he said.
"The Syrian efforts alone are not enough. The Arab parties that are friendly with and have influence in Lebanon must exert efforts," he said.
Syria's permanent representative to the Arab League, Yussef al-Ahmad, said that because of Lebanon's boycott, the foreign ministers would adopt a previous agreement on the crisis but not discuss it in detail.

"The Syrian president had intended to discuss the situation in Lebanon in full detail had Lebanon been present," Ahmad told reporters on the sidelines of the foreign ministers' meeting.

"Because of Lebanon's absence, the Arab foreign ministers have decided to adopt the same statement decided in Cairo three weeks ago which calls for supporting Lebanon as well as the Arab initiative on Lebanon," he said.
That initiative calls for the election of army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman as president, forming a national unity government in which no single party has veto power and a new electoral law.

At Thursday's meeting, the Arab League foreign ministers also agreed to re-endorse the 2002 Arab initiative for Middle East peace but expressed their frustration at Israel's refusal to follow up on their plan, after Muallem hinted that it could be rethought.

"What is being said about withdrawing the Arab initiative is untrue," Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told reporters.
In Jordan, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas rejected any plans to "amend or change" the peace initiative, after talks with King Abdullah II.