Mubarak Decides not to Attend Arab Summit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 27, 2002

Mubarak Decides not to Attend Arab Summit

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has decided not to attend an Arab summit due in Lebanon on March 27-28, and instead asked Prime Minister Atef Obeid to travel there, the official MENA news agency said on Tuesday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who is now in the Lebanese capital of Beirut to make preparations for the summit, told reporters that Mubarak will not attend the Arab summit due to "domestic engagements."

But Mubarak's move was also seen as a possible political maneuver to keep at bay Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who still insists on conditions for allowing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to attend the upcoming Arab summit.

Earlier in the day, Maher told CNN in Beirut that Israel's practices to try to prevent Arafat from showing up at the Arab summit were "illegal."

"Israel has been playing a game on whether Arafat is able to travel to Lebanon, and its travel ban on Arafat is unacceptable and unjustified," Maher stressed.

Last Saturday, Mubarak's absence of the upcoming Arab summit was reported by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel, which attributed the development to a disagreement over the Iraq-Kuwait file in a final statement to be issued at the end of the summit.

Subsequently, Egyptian officials refuted the news report as untrue, saying that Mubarak would attend the Arab summit.

Arafat, who has been confined by Israel to Ramallah since December 3 last year, is still banned from traveling outside the Palestinian self-rule areas.

Israel conditioned Arafat's possible travel to the Lebanese capital of Beirut on his implementation of the U.S.-brokered Tenet plan after a ceasefire agreement is reached between the Palestinians and Israel.

Mubarak's staying away from the Arab summit and Arafat's possible absence will surely tarnish the gathering, where a Saudi Mideast peace proposal will be discussed by Arab leaders.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul-Aziz revealed his proposal in mid-February, offering the normalization of ties between Arab states and Israel in exchange for the latter's withdrawal from all the Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.

The Saudi ideas have been welcomed by the international community, raising a glimpse of hope for restarting the moribund Mideast peace process.

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