Arab leaders may hold Lebanon summit this week

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said today that Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut would discuss the possibility of holding an emergency summit on Lebanon later this week.

Local media outlets had quoted Saudi sources as saying Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was expected to make the call for a summit during today’s ministerial meeting in Beirut.

Lebanon’s As-Safir newspaper also said contacts were under way among Arab states to hold the summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, later this week.

Moallem, speaking to reporters after meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Salloukh early today, said Syria’s position on holding an emergency summit meeting depended on the results of the foreign ministers’ meeting.

“We support, in principle, any Arab meeting that aims at supporting Lebanon’s steadfastness and its national heroic resistance,” he said. Moallem added, however, that Syria wants “practical measures” from Arab heads of state.

“We want these measures to be practical. If this will be on the agenda of the emergency summit, then it is most welcome,” he said. He did not elaborate on the nature of such measures.

Reporters asked Moallem to explain why Venezuela had recalled its ambassador to Israel, while the two Arab states with peace treaties with Israel – Jordan and Egypt – have refused to do that.

“I don’t explain it but I say that we are grateful to the president of Venezuela for this step,” Moallem said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Thursday he was recalling his envoy to Israel to express his indignation at what he called the “genocide” Israel was committing in Lebanon.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa also said Arab ministers would today discuss the possibility of holding a summit. Moussa, who arrived in Beirut yesterday, added that chances for a summit would become clearer after the meeting of Arab foreign ministers.

Moussa described Israeli threats to bomb Lebanese infrastructure and symbols of government as Israeli “arrogance sponsored by international parties”.

“But I don’t think that their lunacy could reach the point of bombing symbols of Lebanese sovereignty,” he said.

The foreign ministers were expected to strongly back Lebanon at their meeting in Beirut.

Moussa, following a meeting with President Emile Lahoud today, said the ministers would also consider whether those Arab countries with ambassadors in Israel should have them recalled. “This has become a widespread demand,” he said.

The Arab foreign ministers’ meeting comes as a US-French plan to end the Israel-Hezbollah fighting has opened deep divisions among Lebanese leaders.

Arab countries have come under criticism for not acting fast to help fellow Arab state Lebanon face the Israeli onslaught, which began July 12.