Arab Foreign Ministers were gathered in Cairo on Sunday for talks on Lebanon's political crisis and developments in Gaza where residents poured over the flattened border into Egypt for a fifth day running.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa was holding bilateral talks with several Arab diplomats ahead of the extraordinary meeting, including with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit who told reporters on Saturday the meeting would help shed light on a proposed Arab intiative to end the stalemate in Lebanon.
The foreign ministers "will issue a statement that will clarify the more obscure parts of the Arab Initiative," Abul Gheit said without elaborating. Mussa has held several rounds of talks with feuding political leaders in Lebanon to spur them to elect a new president and end the crisis which has left the country without a president since November 23. On January 5 he proposed a three-point Arab initiative calling for army chief General Michel Sleiman to be elected president, the formation of a national unity government in which no one party has veto power, and the adoption of a new electoral law.
Lebanon's ruling parliamentary majority has accepted the plan but the Hezbollah-led opposition is demanding a third of the seats in a new government so the opposition can have veto power. Mussa is expected to deliver a report on his mediation efforts.
In the report, obtained by AFP, he will urge Arab countries to continue diplomatic efforts to resolve the political crisis and heal deep mistrust in Lebanon.