Monday, March 22, 2010

March 22, 2010 - The Daily Star - Moussa confirms Lebanon has received summit invite

BEIRUT: Arab League chief Amr Moussa said Lebanon’s Ambassador to the league Khaled Ziyaded has received an invitation for Lebanon to attend the Arab Summit in Tripoli, Kuwait’s news agency KUNA reported on Sunday.
KUNA quoted Moussa as saying that Libya’s Ambassador to the Arab League Mohammad Taher Sayala has submitted to his Lebanese counterpart an invitation from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to President Michel Sleiman to attend the summit.
Moussa had paid a visit to Beirut last week hoping to resolve a diplomatic dispute with Libya over the disappearance of an influential Lebanese cleric 32 years ago.
Sadr, together with his two companions Abbas Badreddine and Mohammad Yaqoub, disappeared during an official trip to Libya in August 1978. The Lebanese widely accuse Gadhafi of being behind the the men’s disappearance, but Tripoli denies the allegations. Libya has repeatedly claimed that Sadr, the spiritual and political leader of the Movement of the Deprived in Lebanon (Amal), had already left for Italy before going missing.
Rome has maintained Sadr never arrived there, though in 2004 the Italian authorities returned a passport found in Italy belonging to the cleric.
The row over Sadr’s disappearance prompted Libya to close its embassy in Lebanon.
Gadhafi, who has not visited Beirut since Sadr vanished, was indicted by the Lebanese authorities along with six other Libyans in August 2008 for the imam’s disappearance.
Moussa said Lebanon’s Cabinet would discuss the Libyan invitation in its next session. – The Daily Star

No comments: