Middle East News
Arab ministers discuss quick action to end Lebanon crisis (Roundup)
By DPA
May 11, 2008, 14:00 GMT

Cairo - Arab foreign ministers were discussing at an emergency meeting in Cairo Sunday new proposals for a quick de- escalation of the Lebanon crisis - but were reluctant to condemn the actions of Hezbollah that led to an outbreak of violence, according to diplomatic sources.

'Before the meeting, the ministers gathered behind closed doors and discussed a set of quick, definite moves to keep the spectre of civil war away from Lebanon, Arab diplomats told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, whose country is an ally of Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition, was absent from the meeting.

Despite the closing of Beirut airport, Lebanon's acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri flew to Cyprus on a military helicopter then to Cairo to attend the Arab League parley, according to the sources.

Several proposals have been mooted at the meeting. The idea of setting up 'unbiased' ministerial committees to contact Lebanese powers has been favourably received by Arab ministers, the sources said.

The idea is the brainchild of Lebanon's parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite politician allied with Hezbollah.

International figures acceptable to all powers in Lebanon should join the proposed committees, some ministers suggested, to ensure world cooperation in solving the crisis.

Berri and Hezbollah have suspiciously looked at an initiative adopted by the Arab League to end the political standoff in Lebanon and viewed it as biased for the governing coalition.

Egypt mooted the idea of sending a peace-keeping force from Islamic and Arab states to restore security and avert a civil war but Arab diplomats think the proposal was unlikely to win any backing in the meeting.

Foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both of which back Lebanon's ruling governing coalition, have asked their colleagues to issue a condemnation of Hezbollah, which seized control of Beirut on Friday, according to the sources.

However, several ministers rejected the Saudi-Egyptian request, arguing that any Arab condemnation would complicate the situation in Lebanon and stoke tension, the sources said.