'Throwing water over the fire'
Libyan-Lebanese tension overshadowed other themes leading up to the Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting,
Dina Ezzat reports
Lebanese and Libyan officials made little attempt to conceal their mutual rancour between preparatory meetings that led up to Tuesday's regular autumn convocation of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers. Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Ebeid arrived in Cairo armed with unequivocal statements about a bilateral dispute stemming from the 1978 disappearance of Lebanese Shi'ite spiritual leader Moussa Al- Sadr in Libya. In an obvious political message, Ebeid's Libyan counterpart Abdel-Moneim Shalguem was absent. Libya's envoy was Permanent Representative to the Arab League Abdel-Rahman Al-Houni.
As the tension between the two countries played out in the corridors of the Arab League Cairo headquarters, Al-Houni emphasised his country's impatience with the recurrent Lebanese accusations against Libya for alleged involvement in Al-Sadr's disappearance during a visit to the Libyan capital. For his part, Ebeid was uncompromising in asserting the right of Lebanon to pursue clarification over this incident, no matter how long ago it happened.
"The issue is not closed and will not be closed before we have a clear answer to our questions on the fate of Sheikh Al-Sadr," Ebeid said.
Arab diplomatic sources said Ebeid made it clear to many of his counterparts as well as to the Arab League that Lebanon wants its questions answered.
"The Lebanese government feels that since Libya is trying to come clean with the West over its alleged involvement in the bombing of commercial planes it might as well show similar frankness towards the Arab countries," one Arab League diplomat said.
Meanwhile, Arab League officials, including Secretary-General Amr Moussa, pressured Libyan and Lebanese officials to put aside, even if temporarily, the dispute over Al-Sadr's fate.
"We simply feel that we have so many pressing problems to deal with," another Arab League diplomat said. "There are so many divisions. We cannot afford to worry today about problems that have not been resolved for a quarter of a century no matter how legitimate these problems are." The diplomat added that it was disappointing but not unexpected for Shalguem to delegate Al- Houni to represent Libya. As Libya is the outgoing chair of the Arab League Shalguem would ordinarily have handed over the chairmanship to his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher.
The debate over Al-Sadr's fate heated up last week when Libyan officials shut down their embassy in Beirut, in protest of Lebanon's renewed implication of the Libyan government in the disappearance.
"We are not severing relations with Lebanon, we are just closing down the embassy," Shalguem said Wednesday 3 September.
Hours after this declaration Moussa contacted the Libyan and Lebanese foreign ministers to ensure that the bilateral issue would not strain an Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting already facing divisive differences among the 22 member states over the issue of Iraqi representation at the meetings.
While refusing to term his go-between effort as "a mediation", Moussa said that he sought a solution with both ministers last week, as well as upon their arrival in Cairo.
The Libyan-Lebanese dispute was dropped into Moussa's lap in 2002 just weeks before the convocation of the Beirut Arab Summit when Lebanese Shi'ites massed to demonstrate against the participation of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafi was highly offended by these demonstrations and statements supporting them that were made by Lebanese officials, particularly Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri. At the time, Gaddafi threatened to boycott the summit. Only after several visits from Moussa did he agree to low-profile Libyan participation.
Arab League diplomats on hand for Moussa's soothing of Libyan sensibilities in 2002 say that the Secretary General should again be credited with Libya's participation this time around.
Libyan and Lebanese sources agree that participation -- rather than resolution -- is the best case scenario. Both sides admit that it is unrealistic to talk of full mediation that would close the Al-Sadr file once and for all.
"To throw water over the fire" -- seemingly without extinguishing it -- is how sources on both sides defined Moussa's mission.
Even prior to closing its embassy in Beirut Libya had maintained low-level diplomatic representation in the Lebanese capital; its mission there was headed by a chargé d'affaire rather than a chief of mission. The Lebanese have a chief of mission in Tripoli but the mission is limited to a few diplomats.
Lift attack
THIS WEEK in Egypt, already tense Saudi-Libyan relations took a turn for the worse. In one of Cairo's poshest hotels, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal was subjected to verbal and attempted physical assault by three Libyan businessmen.
Al-Faisal was in Cairo to take part in the Arab Foreign Ministers Meeting. As the involved parties shared a hotel elevator, the businessmen hurled invective at the hapless prince. "You are such a horrid man. All the members of the Saudi royal family are only puppets of the Americans. You are monkeys," one of the Libyans reportedly shouted.
The others allegedly tried to buffet the Saudi foreign minister with their elbows, but were promptly stopped by his bodyguards who summoned the Egyptian authorities to deal with them.
During questioning, the Libyan businessmen admitted "shouting" at the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, and said that they detested the Saudi royal family for its close association with the Americans. They also alluded to the verbal confrontation between Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah during the last Arab Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh. In the incident, which was mistakenly aired at the time, the Libyan leader made similar remarks pertaining to the nature of Saudi-US relations.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry and Arab League officials described the incident as regrettable. While there is broad agreement that the Libyan government cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of individual Libyans overseas, the attack will do little to heal the Saudi-Libyan dispute.
Given the Libyan decision to boycott the Arab ministerial meeting in protest of the participation of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, the incident was not taken to the Arab League.
