Lebanon Crisis Looms over Dakar Summit

The deep political crisis in Lebanon is expected to loom large over the 11th session of the Islamic Summit Conference due to take place in Dakar on Wednesday.

 

Will Syria deliver an invitation to Lebanon to join an Arab Summit in Damascus at the end of the month? asked the daily An Nahar in its front-page article on Wednesday.

 

Syria was expected to hand over the invitation to Prime Minister Fouad Saniora on the sidelines of the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Summit.

 

Saniora, who will head the Lebanese delegation to Senegal”s capital, will likely seize the opportunity to discuss the political deadlock with Arab officials and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

 

Saniora was also to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to find out about the latest on the international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

 

Ban is to attend a mini-summit on Sudan-Chad to be held Wednesday in Dakar on the margin of the Islamic Summit Conference.

 

The U.N. secretary-general will address the summit on Thursday and will hold bilateral talks with some of the heads of state attending the meeting, his spokesperson said.

 

An Nahar said Dakar was likely to be the “scene for confrontation” at various levels concerning the Lebanese crisis.

 

It also raised the possibility of a similar confrontation to take place at the Damascus summit scheduled for March 29-30.