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CAIRO — The Arab League said Sunday it would send a high-profile mission to Beirut to help mediate an end to Lebanon's worst civil strife in 18 years, but analysts were skeptical the efforts could yield significant results.
The Cairo-based organization said Arab foreign ministers, meeting in an urgent session, had chosen Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani and Arab League chief Amr Moussa to head the delegation.
Fifty-three people have been killed in the fighting that erupted when Hezbollah, a group supported by Iran and Syria, briefly seized control of Beirut after the pro-Western government's decision to target its military communications network. At least 150 people have been wounded.
"We want to rescue Lebanon," Mr. Moussa told a news conference after the meeting. He said the ministers condemned the "use of violence to achieve political goals."
The Lebanese army in armoured personnel carriers advance to deploy in different districts of Beirut May 10. Hezbollah and its allies will end their armed presence in Beirut after the Lebanese army overturned government measures against the group, an opposition statement said on Saturday. (Jamal Saidi/Reuters)
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Earlier, the Arab League had said in a statement that the mission would travel to Beirut immediately, but Mr. Moussa said a date would be set only after calls to Lebanese leaders.
Tensions eased in Beirut Sunday after Hezbollah fighters pulled back from areas they had seized in the western half of the capital. But violence later spread to the mountains east of Beirut between Hezbollah fighters and supporters of the pro-government Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Lebanon has been in a political deadlock for 18 months over opposition demands for a greater share of power. Mr. Moussa has tried for months to broker an end of the crisis without success.
Analysts said they doubted the Arab mission could help solve the conflict in a country they see as a battleground for a confrontation between the United States and its Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia on one hand, and Iran and Syria on the other.
"May be they can broker a temporary solution, but the situation will explode again if the issues are not dealt with in-depth," former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told Reuters. "The situation in Lebanon can only be solved in a regional context."
The Arab League did not set a date for the delegation to visit Beirut. It said it will also include the foreign ministers of Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.
The organization said it invited leaders of the opposition, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the main pillars of the government, for talks with the delegation.
The talks would aim to "draw an urgent roadmap" to carry out an Arab League initiative that calls for electing army chief Michel Suleiman as president, forming a national unity cabinet and formulating a new electoral law, the league said.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both wary of Iranian influence in the region, have called for Sunday's meeting. Syria, an ally of Iran, has said the crisis in Lebanon was as an internal matter. Qatar shares the same view.
Political analyst Emad Gad said the divisions among Arabs make the task of the delegation more daunting: "Since when has the Arab League succeeded in ending a crisis in any Arab country?"
