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Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati will be leading Lebanon’s delegation to the emergency Arab summit taking place in Riyadh on November 11, aimed at forging a unified Arab stance calling for an immediate cease-fire in the raging war in Gaza.
Mikati is expected to manage an uneasy stance, as Hezbollah continues to escalate tensions on the southern border with Israel through daily clashes and exchange of artillery and rocket fire, while Arab leaders will be urging the international community to put pressure on Israel to cease fire and de-escalate the conflict.
Two days before it convenes, the Iranian-backed formation expressed skepticism as to the impact of the summit on the developments in Gaza and its effectiveness in curtailing Israel’s onslaught in which more than 10,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians including hundreds of children, were killed.
Nabil Kawook, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, declared with irony that Israel “does not fear the statements of the Arab summits, even if they amounted to tons, but rather fears a bullet and a resistance missile in the South (of Lebanon) and Gaza.”
He said, the Palestinians of Gaza “do not want the Arabs, neither their armies nor their weapons, but rather to sever their relations with the Israeli enemy,” and vowed that Hezbollah “will continue its operations as long as the aggression against Gaza continues.”
A deeply divided Lebanon will be present at the Arab summit, where officially, it would reaffirm its commitment to UN Resolution 1701 and its wish to stay at bay from the Gaza quagmire, while effectively already engaged in the conflict through Hezbollah’s operations, though they are still limited, so far.
Former Minister and Mikati’s advisor, Nicholas Nahhas, told This is Beirut that the PM will underline Lebanon’s efforts to avoid sliding into a comprehensive war and will ask the Arab summit to support it by urging the international community to call on Israel not to expand the scope of clashes.
Mikati, who had acknowledged that the choice of peace and war is not in the hands of the Lebanese State, might also present to the summit his tentative peace proposal for Gaza in an effort to keep the war in Gaza from engulfing Lebanon.
Mikati has been touring the region’s capitals and speaking to Western diplomats and politicians in an attempt to persuade them to explore ways of staving off an escalation of violence. In particular he wants to prevent Hezbollah from joining the fray against Israel and triggering a regional conflagration.
In a related development, 32 MPs, opposed to Hezbollah and Iran’s axis, pleaded on Friday to the Arab League ahead of its summit to deter the possibility of dragging Lebanon into a war with Israel.
“It is no secret that Lebanon is at the heart of the crisis facing the region, and the Lebanese fear an expansion of the war over which they have no say, since the decision of the Lebanese government is confiscated by an illegal armed force serving a regional axis on the expense of Lebanon’s security, stability and strategic interests,” said a statement signed by the MPs from different parties.
The parliamentarians also called on the Arab summit to help Lebanon fully implement UN Resolutions 1701 1559 and 1680, to free South Lebanon from any armed presence except that of the Lebanese Army and the UN peacekeeping force (UNIFIL).
“The Lebanese refuse being forcefully dragged into a comprehensive war,” the MPs declared, “Lebanon has already been involved, against its will, in a limited war that claimed lives, including that of children, civilians and journalists, as well as the displacement of tens of thousands of its people.”
