Region | Lebanon
All eyes are on Lebanese talks in Doha
The Arab world watches closely the Lebanese talks in Doha, hoping that wider regional tension would ease.
- By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor
- Published: 23:39 May 16, 2008
- Pro-government Druze leader Walid Junblatt (centre) during his visit to Baissour village on a tour of Druze villages.
- Image Credit: EPA
Dubai: The entire Arab world is watching closely the Lebanese national talks in Doha because their success would significantly ease the wider regional tension and help solve other Arab problems.
As Lebanese leaders sat at a Doha round table to talk their way out of the protracted deadlock that left their country without a president for the past six months, the rest of the Arab world believes those 14 men can succeed in cooling off current tensions between Arab heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Syria, analysts told Gulf News.
"There is no other option before the Doha talks but to come up with a prompt and comprehensive solution to defuse tension in the whole region," said Riad Kahwaji, head of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East.
The recent crisis in Lebanon proved the political impasse would eventually turn disastrous, he told Gulf News.
Six-point deal
The talks, which started last night under the auspices of the Emir of Qatar, are based on a six-point deal announced in Beirut on Thursday.
They are meant to reach an agreement between the ruling majority, backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by Syria, on electing a new president, forming a national unity government and drawing up a new electoral law.
"Inter-Arab relations will surely be different if the meeting in Doha manages to elect a new president in Lebanon," said Nuhad Al Mashnouq, Lebanese political analyst and a confidant of the ruling coalition leader Sa'ad Hariri.
"Saudi-Syrian relations had suffered a great deal because of disagreement over the situation in Lebanon," he told Gulf News over the telephone from Beirut.
"The Saudi leadership played a key role to encourage the ruling coalition to go to Doha and come up with an accepted solution," he noted.
Riyadh blamed Syria for the deadlock in Lebanon and sent a low level official to the recent Arab summit in Damascus to make its point.
Egypt also sent a junior minister to the summit. Both countries accuse Syria, former powerbroker in Lebanon, of attempting to destabilise its smaller neighbour. They also accused Iran, a strategic ally of Syria for more than two decades, of supporting Hezbollah in its takeover last week of Beirut.
"The Saudis are not willing to see Lebanon becoming an Iranian bargaining chip in their conflict with the US and the international community over the nuclear issue," said Al Mashnouq.
"Therefore," he added, "they want to see an end to the political impasse in Lebanon and will support the Doha efforts to the end."
Al Mashnouq added: "I personally am not very optimistic about the outcome of Doha."
"I believe the success of the Doha efforts needs a wider agreement between regional and international players fighting over Lebanon. Today, there is no indication such an accord exists. But let us hope for the best."
Mohammad Al Said Idrees, head of the Gulf studies unit at Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram, says the crisis in Lebanon is the result of "two conflicting projects, one led by the US, Israel and their Arab allies that is aimed at ending any form of resistance against the Jewish state and the second by those who are still standing against the Israeli plan to become the hegemonic power in the region."
He added: "Resolving the political deadlock in Lebanon will help in easing the tension in the region, but such an agreement could not be reached unless the ruling coalition realises foreign support is not going to bring stability. Stability should come from within the country."
Reaching a settlement at the Doha talks "will greatly help the region", said Ayman Adel Nour, a Syrian political analyst.
"But would they succeed?" he added.
He noted the conflict in Lebanon "has internal and external manifestations, but the foreign role in fuelling the tension is much stronger."
"I think the two camps have strong interests to come to Doha [and succeed] since the confrontations in the streets of Beirut failed to lead anywhere."
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