Al-Assad mediates to settle the disputes over the Arab summit

News reports in Cairo said that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is making efforts to mediate for convening a meeting between the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Tunisian President Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali to settle the controversy over the place and time of convening the Arab summit.

Diplomatic sources said that the reasons behind the delay of the expected visit by President al-Assad to Cairo go back to his desire to complete conditions for providing this mediation a success.

However, the appendix of the Arab league charter on the mechanism of convening the summit, approved in the Cairo summit of 2000, states to convene the ordinary session of the council of the Arab league at the summit level in March once a year at the headquarters of the Arab league in Cairo." The appendix also permits convening the summit in the country which presides over it if this country wants to be the host of the event."