CAIRO/BEIRUT, 27 March — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a leading figure in the Arab world, sprang a surprise yesterday by saying he would miss an Arab summit in Beirut aimed at forging a policy on peace with Israel.
“There are domestic commitments in Cairo and he (Mubarak) appointed the prime minister to represent him at the summit,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher told reporters in Beirut. Egyptian state television said earlier that Mubarak had appointed Prime Minister Atef Obeid to head Egypt’s delegation. Mubarak had told a Lebanese newspaper that he would be coming to Beirut, although in the same interview he advised Arafat to stay away because Israel was making life too difficult for the Palestinian leader.
However, a high-level Lebanese source told Arab News that the Egyptian leader might surprise the world again by attending the summit’s opening session.
Washington suggested the news of a Mubarak no-show was premature after it had urged Arab leaders to back the summit’s peace aims whether or not Israel allows Arafat to attend. Mubarak’s decision meant that about half of the leaders of the 22 members of the Arab League would not be in Beirut to hear Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah give details of his peace proposals. The world community has praised the crown prince’s initiative, which calls for Arab states to enter peaceful and normal relations with Israel in return for its withdrawal from all land it occupied in the 1967 war.
