Gulf boycott looms over Damascus summit

 

Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states will stay away from an Arab League summit in Damascus later this month unless Lebanon is invited, whether it has a new president or not, a Gulf official said on Monday. “Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states are waiting for Syria to invite Lebanon to the summit in order to decide their attendance. If Lebanon is not invited, [these] Gulf states will not show up,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

 

Lebanon, which has been without a president since late November, is in the throes of a political crisis that has strained relations between Syria and regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, casting a shadow over the annual summit Damascus is due to host from March 29 to 30.

 

Syria and its ally Iran back the Lebanese opposition, led by Hizbullah.

 

Saudi Arabia, along with its Western allies, backs the rump Cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which has been unable to push through any of its legislative program since November 2006 when six pro-opposition ministers quit.

 

A Saudi official told AFP that Riyadh will “in principle” attend the Damascus summit, although it is awaiting the outcome of an Arab foreign ministers” meeting in Cairo on Wednesday that is supposed to make the necessary preparations.

 

The official did not specify whether Saudi King Abdullah or a less senior official would lead the kingdom”s delegation to the summit, to which neither Saudi Arabia nor Lebanon have yet been invited.

 

But the Gulf official, who attended a meeting of foreign ministers from the six Gulf states in Riyadh on Saturday, said some Gulf governments believe that Lebanon must attend the summit.

 

“Either a president is elected on March 11 [when Parliament is to convene in a new bid to elect a head of state after 15 abortive attempts] and he is invited, or the invitation is addressed to the legitimate government of Siniora,” the official said.

 

The Lebanese Constitution stipulates that in the absence of a president, the Cabinet assumes his powers, but the opposition insists that Siniora”s government lost all legitimacy when its ministers quit in November 2006.

 

“The information exchanged by the Gulf ministers at their meeting indicated it will be difficult to elect a president in Lebanon because Syria does not want this to happen before it reaches an understanding with regional and world powers on two issues,” the official said.

 

He identified the issues as a planned international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in which Syrian officials are suspected of involvement, and “the Syrian role in Lebanon.” 

 

Gulf officials have concluded that Syria “is less concerned about who does or does not attend the summit than about keeping the Lebanese card” for use in its standoff with regional and world powers, the official said. Hence, “it is in Syria”s interest to perpetuate the political and constitutional vacuum in Lebanon, because it cannot, under the present circumstances, guarantee that a loyal regime will be installed in Beirut.”

 

Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday discussed with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa “new ideas to settle Lebanon”s crisis.” The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Moussa called the speaker. Moussa also called Siniora on Monday.

 

According to the NNA, Berri and Moussa stressed that Arab League efforts “persist, especially prior to March 11,” the schedule set for Parliament to convene and elect a new president. The report did not disclose further details.

 

Earlier in the day, Berri received Arab ambassadors to Lebanon and “briefed them on developments pertaining to the Arab initiative and the Lebanese crisis,” the NNA reported.

 

UAE Ambassador Mohammad al-Soueidi said Berri briefed the envoys on “all the details and the dialogue between the ruling coalition and the opposition.”
 

Berri, Soueidi said, was “very optimistic, as usual, and we hope Lebanon will have a president by March 11.”

“The Arab initiative, thank God, still stands and we have high hopes on it,” he added.

 

Saudi Arabia on Saturday urged its citizens to leave Lebanon after a stray bullet struck the car of a Saudi diplomat in Beirut over the weekend.

 

Also on Monday, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun suggested that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu al-Gheit join the March 14 coalition because a day earlier the latter accused the Hizbullah-led opposition of scuttling the Arab initiative.

 

Aoun said it would “be better for Lebanon not to attend” the forthcoming Arab summit if a president were not elected, rather than being represented by Siniora”s government.

 

Lebanon”s representation in the Damascus summit has been a source of give and take between feuding Lebanese groups.

 

Aoun also attacked Washington”s dispatching the USS Cole to waters near Lebanon, saying “warships in general have supported chaos and they never supported stability.”

 

“Only peaceful solutions support stability, not destroyers,” Aoun told reporters after a meeting of his Reform and Change parliamentary bloc.

 

Also commenting on the deployment, Lebanese Forces boss Samir Geagea said the Lebanese ought to “thank the US for sending the USS Cole so as to create a certain balance in the region.”

 

Geagea accuses the opposi-tion of serving the agenda of its allies, Iran and Syria. The opposition accuses March 14 of doing the bidding of its supporters, among them France, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

 

In a separate development on Monday, the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, ordered his officers to be ready to prevent the Israelis from occupying Lebanon or attacking Syria from Lebanon. He issued the order in a meeting with commanders of major units at his office in Yarze, east of Beirut.

 

“The troops” basic duty is to prevent the Israeli enemy from occupying Lebanese territory or attempting to use them as a passage to launch an aggression against Arab brethren,” Suleiman added.