Lebanon will attend Annapolis conference

Lebanon will attend the US-sponsored Middle East conference to be held in Annapolis next week, despite the political crisis engulfing the country. Acting foreign minister Tarek Metri left for the US on Saturday to take part in the meeting, a Lebanese official said.

 
Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed Friday to attend next week”s Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions.

 

The meeting will include discussions on a “comprehensive” Arab- Israel peace deal. But it is mainly intended to launch Israeli- Palestinian peace negotiations after a lull of seven years. Washington has pushed for a strong Arab presence to show support.

 

Lebanese woke up Saturday to a country without a president, after rival leaders failed to agree on a consensus president on Friday, final day of the term of former pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud.

The crisis in Lebanon is widely seen as an extension of the regional confrontation pitting the United States against Iran and Lebanon”s former powerbroker, Syria.

 

Progress in Annapolis was seen as possibly helping break the deadlock in Lebanon over the choice of a president.

Washington has been giving its full backing to the cabinet of premier Fouad Siniora, who is now running the country, while Tehran has warned that Lebanon is close to civil war.

 

Syria will also attend the conference

 

Damascus will also send a delegation to the Annapolis peace summit this week, Syrian MP Mohammed Habash , a member of the Syrian Parliament and director of the Islamic Studies Center in Damascus said on Sunday.
Habash spoke in an interview with Radio Sawa, an Arabic-language radio station funded by the United States government. The MP said that Syria decided to participate after it was made clear that the Golan Heights would be on the agenda of the conference.

 

Earlier Syria has openly stated it would not attend the conference if the Golan Heights would not be placed on the agenda.

 

He did not specify the level of the delegates that would be sent, but said that Syria”s participation would play a “positive role.”

 

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Friday that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal at an Arab diplomatic meeting in Cairo with confirmation that the Golan will be discussed at the November 27 conference, which aims to restart talks on Palestinian statehood.

 

Hezbollah and Hamas blast the Annapolis conference

 

Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah ( pictured Abu Marzuq (L) with Daghmoush ) on Saturday blasted the forthcoming US-hosted summit.
At a conference in Tehran, representatives of the two groups lashed out at the US move and predicted it would fail.

 

“This conference wants to destroy the Palestinian issue. This conference will fail,” said Mussa Abu Marzuq, top aide to Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

 

“This conference is a fantasy and propaganda and it aims to attract the so-called moderate Arab nations to their side and part them from the Palestinian issue,” he added.

Hezbollah”s foreign relations chief, Sheikh Ali Daghmush said: “Israel (in this conference) aims to normalize ties with the Arab nations, so prevention of this Zionist plot should be carried out.”

The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah which is backed by Iran had earlier called on the Lebanese government not to attend the conference as “it serves the interest of Israel.”

Iran, which does not recognize Israel, is one of the most vocal backers of Hamas and Hezbollah, and pledged millions of dollars in 2006 to the then Hamas government crippled by a Western aid cut.

 

Hundreds of protesters on Saturday night gathered outside of the Prime Minister”s official residence in Jerusalem to show support for the Annapolis Summit.

 

The demonstrators called on Olmert not to surrender to what they termed the “deniers of peace in the government.”

 

 Peace demonstrators outside of Ehud Olmert”s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday.
Hamas demonstrates against the conference

 

Hamas leaders told demonstrators Friday that over the next few days they will hold rallies and public events against the conference

 

“This is the first referendum against Annapolis,” said Hamas official Khalil al-Haya. “The world must read what these rallies and conferences mean.”