BEIRUT: An Arab delegation is expected in Beirut today in a bid to bring an end to deadly sectarian fighting that erupted in Lebanon last week, the parliament speaker’s office said on Monday.
Arab League Chief Amr Moussa phoned the speaker, opposition stalwart Nabih Berri, to say that the delegation would fly in on Wednesday, a statement said.
It said the delegation would meet Berri, Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, Army Chief Michel Sleiman, Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, and two pro-government figures – Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.
A League official in Cairo said the delegation, to be headed by Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, would assemble in Doha on Tuesday before flying in to Beirut on Sheikh Hamad’s private plane.
The delegation will also include the foreign ministers of Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, the League official said, asking not to be named.Neither Egypt nor Syria, which back the Lebanese government and opposition respectively, will take part in the mission, a League official said.
Moussa told Egypt’s official MENA news agency without elaborating that it was “probable he would also fly to Doha on Tuesday before the delegation left to “launch its efforts aimed at containing the crisis in Lebanon.
Berri met American charge d’affaires Michele Sison earlier on Monday, the speaker’s office added without elaborating.
At least 59 people have been killed and nearly 200 wounded in fighting between opposition and government supporters since last Wednesday marking Lebanon’s worst sectarian unrest since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Normal flights to and from Beirut have been paralyzed with the opposition blocking the main airport highway.-AFP
