March 25, 2010 - The Daily Star - Cabinet delegates Arab League envoy to attend Libya summit

By Nafez Kawas
Daily Star correspondent

BEIRUT: The Cabinet decided Wednesday to delegate Lebanese representative to the Arab League Khaled Ziyade to deliver Lebanon’s address to the Arab Summit in Tripoli on March 27-28.
The government’s decision to send a low-level representative is perceived as a compromise between parliamentary majority parties that support of Lebanon’s participation and Shiite parties, Hizbullah and Amal Movement, which demand a boycott of the summit.
Speaker Nabih Berri warned earlier this month that Lebanese participation would “jeopardize the current political status quo,” a reference to potential tensions among parties of the national unity Cabinet.
However, Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement party said it supports a Lebanese presence, arguing that any disintegration in regional politics would have enormous repercussions at home.
The Lebanese widely blame Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for ordering the abduction of Lebanese Imam Musa Sadr, together with his two companions, during a trip to Libya in August 1978.
Tripoli has denied the allegations and claimed that Sadr, also the spiritual and political leader of the Movement of the Deprived (Amal) in Lebanon, which is currently headed by Berri, had already left for Italy before his disappearance.
Following the Cabinet meeting headed by Hariri at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Information Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters the summit would embrace on its agenda an article expressing unity with Lebanon against Israeli threats.
“The article is being prepared in Lebanon and was earlier discussed during the Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo earlier this month; however the government did not agree on any other issue to be raised by Zyiade,” Mitri added.
On another note, Mitri said the government had delegated the Higher Relief Council to donate LL40 million to each of the families of the Ethiopian Airlines crash victims.
“The government decided to offer LL40 million in aid to families of victims which is not to be considered as a legally binding compensation,” he added.
Flight ET409 plunged into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport amid a violent thunderstorm in the early hours of January 25.
The plane was bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and had 83 passengers and seven crew members on board. No survivors were found.
Furthermore, the Cabinet delegated Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud and Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud to resolve violations of public peace following complaints by Gemmayzeh residents against pubs and restaurants in the area.