Region | Syria
Syria surprised by Egypt's delegate
Syrian officials said they were shocked by the downgrading of Egyptian participation to the 20th Arab Summit to be held in Damascus from March 29 to 30.
- By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor
- Published: 00:22 March 28, 2008
Damascus: Syrian officials said they were shocked by the downgrading of Egyptian participation to the 20th Arab Summit to be held in Damascus from March 29 to 30.
A senior official from the Foreign Ministry in Syria, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an Arab leader was trying to get the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to depute his Prime Minister if he was not willing to attend the summit by himself. "It seems that our brethren in Egypt are not capable of accepting the initiative due to foreign pressure on Egypt to boycott the summit," he said.
Egypt will be sending the State Minister for Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils, Moufed Mahmoud Shehab.
Libya has been involved in the mediation between Egypt and Syria, but failed to achieve its objectives.
"We [Syrians] believe that the US was behind the efforts to wreck the Damascus Summit. I wish our brethren in Saudi Arabia and Egypt had abided by their national interests to attend the summit instead of bowing to pressure from the US," said the official.
Hossam Zaki, a spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry, said Egypt did not boycott the conference and hoped that its participation through Shehab would help in presenting Egypt's view to the summit.
"The issue is not who is going to represent Egypt in the summit, it is rather supporting Arabs to take the right decisions for the burning issues in the Arab world. Minister Shehab has been given full authority to handle the Arab issues to be discussed in the summit."
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