Arab League to meet in Beirut

The biannual meeting of the Arab League's ministerial council will be held in mid-March in Beirut rather than Cairo.

The unprecedented decision to shift the venue from league headquarters to Beirut was announced by the organisation's secretary general, Mr Ismat Abdel-Maguid, who said the session would focus on "political and financial support for Lebanon". The Lebanese Prime Minister, Dr Selim al-Hoss, welcomed the initiative. "After so many Arab setbacks . . . Arab public opinion has been mobilised," he said, referring to widespread Arab protests against Israel's February 8th raids against Lebanese power plants.

Beirut is hoping Arab donors will pay the balance of $1.6 billion of the $2 billion pledged for reconstruction when the Taif Accord ending the civil war was signed in 1989. At first Dr Hoss was cool to the proposal to hold the meeting in Beirut. It was put forward by President Hosni Mubarak during last Saturday's first visit to the Lebanese capital by an Egyptian head of state. Dr Hoss was persuaded to host the meeting by the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who assured him that Lebanon would be first on the agenda and that Arab solidarity with Lebanon would not be jeopardised by inter-Arab divisions.

It is expected that the ministerial meeting will set the stage for an Arab summit, postponed repeatedly at the insistence of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to avoid Arab pressure for the lifting of sanctions on Baghdad. Recent crises in the peace process have convinced the Arabs that they must present a solid pro-peace front if there is to be a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement.