Syria: US seeking to torpedo summit

Damascus/Cairo: Syria accuses the United States of trying to torpedo the Arab summit in Damascus, which has been riven by deep divisions between Arab leaders.

Egypt announced it would send only a low-level official to the gathering in a snub to Syria.

The holding of the annual summit in Damascus has worsened the split between Syria and US-allied Arab countries, who have been at odds with Syria over a host of issues for the past three years. Lebanon has announced it is boycotting the summit, and Saudi Arabia is also sending a low-level official rather than King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mua'alem stopped short of criticising Saudi Arabia and Egypt yesterday. But he suggested the United States was behind the Lebanese boycott.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gaith told the official Mena news agency that he would not attend the summit due to be held in Damascus on Saturday and Sunday but instead send State Minister for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mufid Shehab.

The delegation's downgrading reflects tensions with Syria over differences on how to deal with the political crisis in Lebanon, whose continuation Egypt and fellow regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia blame on Damascus.

Negative role

Lebanon on Tuesday said it would not take part in the Arab summit because of what is said was Syria's negative role in the country's protracted crisis that has left it without a president for months.

Syria, which held sway in Lebanese affairs for decades before it was forced to withdraw its troops from the country in 2005, has been accused of standing in the way of the election of a new president.

Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia had already announced that their leaders would boycott the summit, although Abul Gaith had been expected to attend.

Lebanon is in the grip of a standoff between the government and the Hezbollah-led opposition that has left it without a president since November, when pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his mandate.

The Lebanese crisis, the worst since the end of the country's 1975-1990 civil war, is widely seen as an extension of the conflict pitting the United States and its regional allies against Syria and Iran.

On Monday, a 17th session of parliament to elect a successor to Lahoud was postponed. A new session has been set for April 22.