Last update - 00:00 19/02/2008
Siniora: Failure to solve Lebanon crisis undermines Arab Summit
By Reuters
Next month's Arab summit in Syria would be undermined if a solution to Lebanon's political crisis cannot be found by then, Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Tuesday.
The election of a new Lebanese president has been delayed since November and Siniora told Reuters in an interview efforts were being made to fill the post and prevent a power vacuum.
Siniora, whose anti-Syrian ruling coalition is locked in a 15-month power struggle against an opposition led by Shi'ite Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, said that without a Lebanese president the summit would lose its value.
"I believe that the lack of representation of Lebanon on a presidential level at the summit will make the summit lose a lot of its importance," he said.
"This summit should be attended by all the presidents and all the Arab countries. Let us imagine a summit without Lebanon having a presidential seat at it, how would it look?" asked Siniora, who was in Britain for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Diplomats and analysts say Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is unlikely to attend the Arab League's annual summit unless Lebanon's political deadlock is resolved.
Asked whether Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, might not send top-level representation or even boycott the summit, Siniora said no decisions had been reached.
"I don't really have any information that confirms the position of every Arab country. Lebanon has not asked any Arab country to boycott," he said.
"We are saying that Lebanon should be represented by a president and all the Arabs expect Lebanon to be represented on a presidential level," he said.
"This is what we are seeking and what others are seeking to facilitate the election of the president and to remove all the hurdles that are being placed from inside and outside Lebanon."
Lebanon and other Arab countries have not received any official invitations yet from Syria to attend the summit in Damascus at the end of March.
Lebanon's political crisis, the worst since the country's 1975-90 civil war, has also caused street clashes over the past.
Saudi Arabia has emerged as a leading Arab power in recent years, as surging world oil prices have enabled the U.S. ally to play a more forceful role in settling regional disputes.
Arab summits have in the past focused on such central issues as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met on Tuesday under pressure to accelerate progress in peace negotiations that would include statehood for the Palestinians. The talks were launched at a summit in Annapolis, Maryland in November.
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