The government formation deadlock casts its shadow over the Arab Economic Summit scheduled to be held in Beirut on January 19-20.
Some fear the absence of a government would impact the level of representation of Arab countries, while presidential sources ruled out any link between the government crisis and the meeting.
While logistical preparations were completed to receive participants, who confirmed their hotel reservations, MP Ali Khreis from the Development and Liberation bloc said on Sunday: “There will be no summit in Beirut without Syria and without a government.”
In this context, the director of the Middle East Institute for Strategic Affairs, Sami Nader, said that the failure to form a government would reflect negatively on the political dimension of the summit, which would be held amid internal division resulting from regional differences, including the issue of inviting Syria to the summit.
“Instead of being in favor of Lebanon, the event will be at its expense, which is likely to be reflected in the level of representation of countries, which is clear days before the summit,” Nader said.
On the economic level, Nader noted that whether the government was formed or not would not matter.
“The Lebanese government’s work program is the same, so are the decisions of the summit, which will be binding on Lebanon and all participating countries,” he explained.
As for disagreements over inviting Syria to the summit, which Hezbollah and caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil are pushing for, ministerial sources emphasized that Lebanon was not in charge of the invitations. Therefore, the decision to invite Damascus will be in the hands of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers.
