Dubai: The entire Arab world is watching closely the Lebanese national talks in Doha because their success would significantly ease the wider regional
tension and help solve other Arab problems.

As Lebanese leaders sat at a Doha round table to talk their way out of the protracted deadlock that left their country without a president for the past six months, the rest of the Arab world believes those 14 men can succeed in cooling off current tensions between Arab heavyweights Saudi Arabia and
Syria, analysts told Gulf News.

"There is no other option before the Doha talks but to come up with a prompt and comprehensive solution to defuse tension in the whole region," said Riad Kahwaji, head of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East.

 

The recent crisis in Lebanon proved the political impasse would eventually turn disastrous, he told Gulf News.

Six-point deal

The talks, which started last night under the auspices of the Emir of Qatar, are based on a six-point deal announced in Beirut on Thursday.

They are meant to reach an agreement between the ruling majority, backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by Syria, on electing a new president, forming a national unity government and drawing up a new electoral law.

"Inter-Arab relations will surely be different if the meeting in Doha manages to elect a new president in Lebanon," said Nuhad Al Mashnouq, Lebanese political analyst and a confidant of the ruling coalition leader Sa'ad Hariri.

"Saudi-Syrian relations had suffered a great deal because of disagreement over the situation in Lebanon," he told Gulf News over the telephone from Beirut.

"The Saudi leadership played a key role to encourage the ruling coalition to go to Doha and come up with an accepted solution," he noted.

Riyadh blamed Syria for the deadlock in Lebanon and sent a low level official to the recent Arab summit in Damascus to make its point.

Egypt also sent a junior minister to the summit. Both countries accuse Syria, former powerbroker in Lebanon, of attempting to destabilise its smaller neighbour. They also accused Iran, a strategic ally of Syria for more
than two decades, of supporting Hezbollah in its takeover last week of
Beirut.

"The Saudis are not willing to see Lebanon becoming an Iranian bargaining chip in their conflict with the US and the international community over the nuclear issue," said Al Mashnouq.

Read more in detail : Gulfnews