MP Zahra: The Arab Summit was a failure

by **Admin** Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:33 am

MP Antoine Zahra of the Lebanese Forces said that the Arab Summit held in Damascus last weekend was a failure, “although Damascus declared that the mere fact that some Arab leaders met meant its success.”

“The summit also failed because Syria refused to acknowledge Arab complaints that it should stop interfering in Lebanon’s presidential elections,” Zahra told Radio Liban Libre.

“Damascus also emphasized its mistakes when it sent the invitation to the summit from the Syrian prime minister to his Lebanese counterpart,” he added.

Zahra noted that the summit also failed to discuss Lebanese-Syrian relations seriously, “since states with influence over Syria, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, did not attend the summit except through low-level delegations.”

“Therefore, it was normal for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to impose his own logic: That his country is not interfering in Lebanon, while all other states are calling on it to.”

“It is as if he was talking from another planet, or as if people are not aware of what is happening on the Arab stage and in Lebanon,” Zahra said.

He also said that Syria is trying to duck out of its responsibility in the Lebanon crisis by saying that Lebanon’s problems are internal.