Opening of the Arab League Summit - 2002-03-28

The two-day summit of the leaders of the Arab League member states opened today in Beirut, Lebanon, without the presence of three key figures. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, and King Abdullah of Jordan are absent from this meeting. Palestinian officials say that Mr. Arafat decided not to attend the summit because Israel conditioned his exit from Ramallah on a declaration of a ceasefire and threatened that if a terrorist attack against Israel occurred in his absence, he would not be allowed to return to the Palestinian territories. Mr. Arafat intends to send a message to the Arab League summit via satellite television. Egyptian officials cited internal problems as the reason for Hosni Mubarak's absence from the Beirut gathering, but diplomats have reported that the Egyptian leader is angry with the United States for not doing more to ensure Yasser Arafat's attendance at the meeting. No explanation has been provided for King Abdullah's absence. The two-day summit is set to discuss and approve the peace plan proposed by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. According to this plan, in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from all territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, Arab countries will normalize their relations with Israel.