Region | Lebanon
Lebanon crisis unites Riyadh, Cairo
Egyptian and Saudi leaders on Sunday discussed regional issues, mainly the deadlock in Lebanon, official media in announced, without referring to the two countries' positions on the upcoming Arab summit scheduled to be held in Damascus.
- Gulf News Report
- Published: 23:29 February 24, 2008
Dubai: Egyptian and Saudi leaders on Sunday discussed regional issues, mainly the deadlock in Lebanon, official media in announced, without referring to the two countries' positions on the upcoming Arab summit scheduled to be held in Damascus.
While the Egyptian official news agency (Mena) said both King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and President Hosni Mubarak discussed the situation in Lebanon and the efforts to elect a new president there, the official Saudi official news agency said the summit focused on the situation in Lebanon and developments in both Iraq and Palestine.
No further details were provided.
Meanwhile, press reports said Mubarak and Abdullah were expected to reaffirm their declared position that the election of a Lebanese president - a post that has been vacant since November - is a prerequisite to a successful Arab summit next month.
Perceived interference
But Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) quoted diplomatic sources in Riyadh as refusing to say whether Mubarak and Abdullah would boycott the summit in response to Syria's perceived interference in Lebanon's domestic politics and hindering the election of a consensual president.
Syria has insisted that the summit is going ahead irrespective of their level of participation, the report added.
"Syria rejects political blackmail by some Arab and international circles to affect the upcoming 20th summit in March," Syria's former information minister, Mahdi Dakhl Allah told DPA.
"Not a single Arab summit has brought all Arab leaders together," Dakhl Allah said.
"The summit will be held as scheduled but there is a problem with the level of representation. It is certain that many leaders will attend," he added.
Press reports quoted Mubarak as stressing, ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, the importance of his alliance with the Saudis.
"Saudi-Egyptian ties are the mainstay of pan-Arab cooperation," Mubarak told Saudi Al Riyadh newspaper.
"Lebanon's political ordeal is not only polarising its own rival blocs, but also major Arab rivals", a DPA report said.
The standoff stems from intractable disagreements between the majority coalition government and the opposition over their representation in a proposed unity Cabinet and the ensuing stalemate in electing a president.
In turn, Riyadh and Cairo with their backing of the Lebanese government seem to have intractable disagreements with Syria.
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