Moussa: convening the summit in March depends of Arab states answers to Arab League memorandum
Libya-Regional, Politics, 1/9/2002

The secretary general of the Arab League (AL) Amr Moussa has stressed that convening the periodical Arab summit in Beirut by the end of March depends on the response of the Arab states to the memorandum sent by the Arab League general secretariat to these states.

In an interview to the BBC on Tuesday, Moussa said he will visit Baghdad this month in the context of his tour on several Arab states to make consultations. He added that the summit will discuss all developments on the Arab arena.

For his part, the Libyan minister in charge of African affairs Abdul Salaam al-Tureiki said that Libya will not attend the Arab summit in Beirut at the summit level, noting that several Arab states will do so due to security reasons and because of the split among the Lebanese authority over convening the summit and other reasons, and therefore:" we call for transferring this summit from Beirut to Cairo or to any other Arab country, and this stems from Libya's care to maintain the unity of the Arab nation."

Al-Tureiki said that in light of threats launched by Nabih Berri ( Lebanese parliament member) against Libya and its leadership and personal threats against the Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi," any Arab leader can not attend this meeting, and therefore the convening of the Arab summit now and at this time in particular might be bad and damaging for the Arabs.

Asked about the Syrian position, al-Tureiki said:" our relations with Syria are strategic. We do appreciate Syria's steadfastness and sacrifices made against the aggression. And we are with Syria if this ( Arab) summit will be held in Syria, then we will attend it at the highest level.."

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