Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi confirmed that he would not attend the upcoming Arab summit.
Kadhafi told the Qatari-based satellite television Al-Jazeera that his refusal to travel to Beirut for the two-day summit beginning Wednesday was not motivated by a feud with Lebanon's Shiite community but by the failure of the previous summit in Amman to implement its resolutions.
"If the summit does not respect its resolutions, then I will not attend it," he said in reference to a resolution adopted in March 2001 for the creation of a committee charged with following up his ideas for a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the Amman summit, the Libyan leader had outlined behind closed doors his own plan for peace between Arab countries and Israel. Earlier this month, he made public his plan, which proposes a recognition of the Jewish state conditional on the return of all Palestinian refugees, the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction in the region and the organization of free elections under the aegis of the United Nations, AFP reported.
When asked whether the dispute was the reason for his boycott of the summit, which is expected to back landmark Saudi proposals for peace with Israel, Kadhafi said "these were stupid issues."
Libya is to be represented at the two-day summit by Minister for African Unity Abdel Salam Triki, he added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
