Syria is shrugging off the absence of regional heavyweights from Saturday's summit, which it says will have no impact on the outcome, even as analysts warn that it could deepen Arab rifts.
Jordan on Friday became the latest US ally to announce it would send a low-level delegation to the Damascus Summit, following the examples of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which blame Syria for the political crisis crippling Lebanon. "Jordan's representative to the Arab League, Omar Rifai, will lead the Jordanian delegation," the kingdom's information minister, Nasser Jawdeh, announced.
Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh also made a last-minute decision to send his deputy Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
At the close of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Thursday ahead of the two-day summit, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem brushed off the boycott by the leaders. "There will be no trace of the United States on the summit's work or agenda," Mouallem told reporters.
The United States last week called on its Arab allies in the region to think twice before attending the summit, accusing Syria of blocking the election of a president in Lebanon.
Elias Mrad, editor-in-chief of the ruling party's mouthpiece Al-Baath, said the United States pressured its regional allies into boycotting the event. "The United States has exercised pressure and asked Arab countries not to attend because the Americans don't want a summit, and they don't want it in Damascus, and they don't want any common Arab work," Mrad wrote on Friday.
"The level of participation will not change the decisions of the summit. The summit is a success," he added.
"Despite the pressures, 18 foreign ministers turned up for the preparatory meeting," Mrad said. "Damascus will not allow the US administration to interfere in the summit's agenda or in its decisions."
"It is enough for the Arab summit in Damascus that the American ghost is banished... It is enough that, for the first time, all its decisions and agreements will be free of the American virus," state-owned Ath-Thawra wrote.
AFP estimates that half of all Arab leaders are boycotting Saturday's summit.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is now due to host the leaders of Algeria, the Comoros, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
Some observers predicted the low turnout could be deepen existing cracks in Arab relations and polarize the region. "This summit is taking place under the shadow of a deep Arab split which started at previous summits, but has now reached its peak with leaders unable to hold a dialogue at the summit level," said Wahid Abdel Megid, director of the Cairo-based Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
"If there is no serious movement by the Arab League Secretary General (Amr Moussa) to arrange a dialogue between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria, I believe we are headed towards a situation similar to that between 1957 and 1967," known as the Arab Cold War, Megid said.
The tensions then pitted the Arab nationalist camp, led by late Egyptian president Jamal Abdel Nasser, against the conservative monarchies, led by Saudi Arabia.
On Thursday, Mouallem called on Saudi Arabia to use its influence in Lebanon to end the months-long crisis there.
"Syria is supported by certain Arab forces who want to change the face of the area into a more Iranian one against the United States," according to Abdel Megid.
Lebanon has been without a president since the end of November. It has been mired in a political crisis for over a year due to political feuding between the majority, now backed by most Arab states, and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
"Everyone expects the summit to fail," said Egypt's state-owned daily Al-Gomhouria. "Most Arab countries won't sign up to Syria's lost bet on Iran taking up the leadership of the region."
-AFP/NOW Staff