The withdrawal of the Palestinian delegation, rejoining
Regional-Palestine, Politics, 3/28/2002

By the end of the first day of the Arab summit conference on Wednesday it was possible to "eliminate" the problems of the withdrawal of the Palestinian delegation which resulted when the Lebanese President did not permit hearing the speech of the chairman of the Palestinian authority Yasser Arafat directly via Satellite from his headquarters in Ramullah.

The solution, which was reached following a series of Lebanese, Syrian, Arab and Palestinian consultation states that the Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, will head today ( Thursday) together with several Arab foreign ministers and the Arab League chief Amre Mousa before the summit's session to the pavilion of the Palestinian foreign minister Farouk al-Qaddoumi to accompany him together with members of the Palestinian delegation to the Conference's hall, where they will be welcomed by President Lahoud and then speech of Arafat will be heard.

Following Wednesday's evening session of the summit, the Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al- Hariri said it was agreed to settle the issue of the pullout of the Palestinian delegation from the meeting and stressed the Palestinian delegation will take part in the works of the conference today ( Thursday) morning.

For his part, the Palestinian minister of planning and international cooperation Nabil Shaath said that the "Palestinian delegation will take part today as a result of inter Arab contacts." He explained that the Lebanese prime minister al-Hariri will accompany the Palestinian delegation to the conference's hall. Shaath explained that the decision to return back to the summit "was taken by President Arafat who provided us with his directives to this effect.." Shaath added " we had to protest especially as the summit is dedicated for the Palestinians," but he stressed that there is " no Palestinian- Lebanese crisis," stressing that "the success of the summit is our ultimate objective."

Previous Stories:
  Arafat and the summit   (3/27/2002)
  Palestinian delegation to Beirut summit pulls out   (3/27/2002)
  High hopes are pinned on Egypt in Beirut summit   (3/25/2002)

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