BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said there was no need to hold an Arab summit if it was meant to cover the U.S. looming war on Iraq, Lebanon's As Safir newspaper reported Friday.
Assad told a number of his visitors that there was no reason for the Arab leaders to meet if the purpose is to secure a cover for striking Iraq or sending an Arab delegation to Baghdad to meet Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"Delegations should go in another direction," he said, apparently referring to Washington where Arabs should convince U.S. President George Bush abandon his war plans against Iraq.
Assad said the Arab summit should deal with the Iraqi crisis as "an Arab problem that should be solved by the Arabs" and should prevent using Arab territories to attack other Arab countries.
"Why should we hold a summit if it was to decrease the level of international opposition of war?" he asked.
After failed attempts by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to hold an emergency Arab summit in his country's resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the gathering was finally scheduled to take place March 1st in Cairo.
Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya rejected Mubarak's sudden call for an emergency summit and insisted on agreeing first on the summit's agenda.
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