Arab League to send high-level mission to Beirut

by Mona Salem Sun May 11, 4:46 PM ET

CAIRO (AFP) - Arab foreign ministers said after crisis talks in Cairo that they will send a high-level delegation to Beirut for dialogue with political leaders in a bid to end a long-standing political deadlock.

A resolution issued at the end of the Arab League discussions urges Lebanese politicians "to attend a meeting with a ministerial delegation (...) in order to discuss the dangerous situation in Lebanon and draw up an urgent roadmap to implement the Arab initiative."

These talks would bring together three opposition stalwarts -- parliament speaker Nabih Berri, Christian leader Michel Aoun and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah -- with Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri and former president Amin Gemayel.

A delegation headed by Qatar and including Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa will head to Lebanon "very soon" for the talks, Mussa told reporters after the meeting.

The mission will intentionally not include regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt which have been vocal in their backing of Siniora's government, as well as Syria which backs Hezbollah.

The crisis talks followed days of deadly violence in Lebanon which have stoked fears that a protracted political feud could break out into a repeat of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Syria has been blamed for the troubles of its smaller neighbour.

The resolution underlined the Arab League's "rejection of the use of armed violence to achieve political goals outside the framework of constitutional legitimacy, and the need for a withdrawal of all weapons from the streets."

The text was drawn by Egypt and put forward with the support of six other pro-Western Arab governments -- Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, delegates told AFP.

Syria, which did not send its foreign minister to the Cairo meeting and was represented by its ambassador to the Arab League, Ahmed Yussef, had objected to a draft, they said.

"Many countries are against this text because of the implicit condemnation of Hezbollah," one diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Yussef however denied the text included any condemnation of any party.

Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmud Ali Yussef told reporters at an evening press conference that the text had intentionally avoided condemnations because "that does not create an appropriate atmosphere for dialogue."

The Arab foreign ministers also appealed for an "immediate end to violence, shooting in Mount Lebanon and the withdrawal of gunmen in order to enable the army to deploy," a statement said.

They also reiterated their support for the Arab initiative for Lebanon which calls for the election of Lebanese army chief General Michel Sleiman as president, the establishment of a national unity government and the holding of parliamentary elections.

Saudi Arabia, a key supporter and financier of the rump Western-backed government in Beirut, had led calls for the meeting in the wake of the fighting that has killed at least 42 people.

Saudi Arabia and fellow regional heavyweight, Egypt, have been strong supporters of Siniora and blamed Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian allies for the latest confrontation.

Lebanon's long-running political stand-off erupted in November 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet. The country has been without a president since November, when Damascus protege Emile Lahoud quit at the end of his term.

The crisis is widely seen as an extension of the confrontation pitting the United States and its Arab allies against Syria and Iran.