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Cairo: The Arab League expects no last-minute breakthrough in the political deadlock in Lebanon before an Arab summit starts in Damascus on Saturday, the chief of the pan-Arab organisation said on Monday.
"The feedback .... does not really give me the impression that we can do major things in the next couple of days," said Secretary-General Amr Mousa, one of the main mediators between the Lebanese government and the opposition.
"What we have not succeeded in building in the last several months I don't think we will succeed in doing in the next 24 hours," Mousa said in an interview.
A delay in presidential election would mean that there would be no Lebanese president to attend the summit on March 29 and 30. Lebanon has been without a president since Emile Lahoud's term ended in November.
Mousa said that even if some leaders do not go to Damascus at least all 22 Arab League members would be represented. "All countries are going to attend. If some heads of state choose to stay away they will be duly represented," he added.
Contacts continue
Mousa said that contacts on a political solution for Lebanon were continuing but he also said there were no new proposals in circulation this week.
"There is nothing for this week. Many of us believe that it would be difficult on the 25th for the parliament to convene," he said, referring to the session planned for today.
The conflict in Lebanon is expected to dominate the summit, along with the future of an Arab initiative offering Israel peace and normal relations in exchange for withdrawal from all the land Israel seized in the Middle East war of 1967.
Successive Israeli governments have either rejected or ignored the initiative, which would mean giving up East Jerusalem and colonies that house hundreds of thousands of Jews in the occupied West Bank.
Arab foreign ministers threatened earlier this month to reconsider the 2002 initiative but they have not said what alternative strategies are under consideration.
"I don't think we should just continue to extend our hands while the other side [Israel] refuses to take this initiative or to respond positively," Mousa said.
The Arab League chief said all Arab governments were frustrated at the lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian talks since the peace conference which the United States organised in the Maryland town of Annapolis last November.
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