Lebanon Invites Arab Leaders to AESD Summit

Dispatched by President Michel Aoun, caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil left on a regional tour to invite Arab leaders to the Arab Economic and Social Development summit to be held in Beirut on January 19-20, the National News Agency reported Monday.

NNA said that Bassil will first travel to Kuwait where he will hand an invitation to Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah. The two are expected to hold talks on several issues including the ties between the two countries.

Bassil will later head to Jordan for the same purpose, added NNA.

Earlier last week, caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil went to Tunisia and handed an invitation to Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, who promised to attend.

Caretaker Minister of State for Combating Corruption Nicolas Tueni had also traveled to Sudan on Sunday and handed an invitation to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The Arab Economic and Social Development summits are summits of the Arab League, held at the head of state level to address issues of economic and social development among member-states.

The inaugural summit was held in 2009 in Kuwait, and the second summit was held in Egypt in 2011.

On 29 March 2007, resolution 365, proposed by Egypt and Kuwait and calling for a summit to address exclusively the economic and social development issues facing the Arab world, was passed at the Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.