The Arab consultative meeting at the level of foreign ministers, will be hosted and chaired by Lebanon next Saturday, where the Arabs will consult on all the Arab issues that are considered a real challenge by the countries that will present them.
Arab diplomatic sources told “Sawt Beirut International” that Lebanon is hosting the consultative meeting, as it is the current president of the League session at the ministerial level. Therefore, it chairs and hosts any meeting at this level as well, even if it is consultative, and they made it clear that there is no agenda for the meeting, no decisions will be issued, and no recommendations.
But, it will end with a joint press conference for the session’s president, that is, by the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Bou Habib, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Each foreign minister will present what he deems necessary for his discussion of issues of interest to his country or of the Arabs. The sources revealed that the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, like every minister, even if he is the president of the session, can present Lebanon’s concerns to the Arab ministers. Therefore, he will present the Lebanese situation in all its political, economic and financial aspects. He will urge the Arabs to support him, and he will express Lebanon’s solidarity with its Arab brothers. he will raise the need to find a solution to the Syrian refugee crisis, and it is not excluded that the Jordanian foreign minister will also raise this issue, given Jordan’s hosting of hundreds of thousands of Syrians.
The sources expect that the Iranian threats to the Gulf states and its behavior in the region, will be one of the most prominent points that these countries will raise, as this represents a pivotal point in their foreign policy and daily challenges. The sources expected that some foreign ministers would present the outcome of Arab demands from Lebanon, regarding its implementation of international resolutions.
So, how will Lebanon respond, when it has not registered any progress, and is not alone in its ability to do so? While it is still floundering politically and economically.
The sources confirmed that the discussions that will take place in the consultative meeting may establish decisions during the regular September session of the Arab League, where decisions will issued if Arab consensus is to br reached, or if the Arabs find that a certain situation can no longer be unresolved, or that an issue requires action, and therefore they make a decision about it in the September session because the consultative meeting does not issue decisions.
The meeting will take place at “Habtoor” Hotel, and lasts for two and a half hours.