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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Egypt to send legal affairs minister to Arab summit |
| 2008-03-27 |
| (Xinhua) -- Egypt will send its Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufed Mahmoud Shehab to the upcoming Arab League summit in Syria, the official MENA News Agency reported Wednesday. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit announced instatements to MENA that Shehab will represent Egypt at the summit slated for March 29-30 in Damascus, capital of Syria. Earlier, Abul Gheit noted that his country believed that the Arab summit needs favorable atmosphere to achieve its goals. The top Egyptian diplomat expressed Egypt's keenness to boost the Arab joint action and play an effective role during the summit, which is expected to discuss the pressing issues in the MiddleEast region. By sending only its legal affairs minister, Egypt became the latest Arab country to snub the Arab Summit. One day ago, the Lebanese cabinet officially announced to boycott the upcoming 20th Arab summit, urging the Arabs to tackle the political crisis in Lebanon, which the Lebanon majority government blames Damascus for a negative influence. On the sidelines of a preparatory meeting Damascus on Monday, Saudi permanent representative to the Arab League Ahmad Qattan announced that he would attend the upcoming Arab summit on behalf of his country, ruling out the presence of Saudi King Abdullah or Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. Saudi's announcement to send a low-level delegation to the summit reflects the strained ties between Damascus and Riyadh overthe political crisis in neighboring Lebanon, where the presidential seat has been vacant since last November when the former President Emile Lahoud stepped down. A long-awaited parliamentary session to elect a new Lebanese president to succeed Lahoud has been postponed for 17 times till April 22. Saudi Arabia and Syria support different parties in Lebanon, with Riyadh, along with its Western allies, backing the majority led by Saad Hariri in the Lebanese parliament while Damascus and its ally Tehran supporting the opposition. Saudi Arabia, together with Egypt, are blaming Syria for blocking the presidential election in Lebanon, which is denied by Syria. |
| Posted by:Fred |