Libya won't be allowed to enter Lebanon to attend Arab economic summit: lawmaker

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BEIRUT, Jan 11 (Xinhua) -- A Lebanese lawmaker said on Friday that the Libyan delegation will be forbidden from entering Lebanon to attend the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit schedule for later this month.

"The Libyan delegation may arrive at the airport but it will surely not be capable of entering Lebanon," Ali Khreis of the Amal Movement, a Lebanese Shiite political party, told Xinhua.

A day earlier, the Amal Movement announced a plan to launch nationwide protests to close the airport ahead of the Beirut summit in a bid to prevent the Libyan delegation from taking part in the event.

"There are also other surprising steps that will be taken by the Amal Movement to prevent any attempt to normalize ties with Libya which was not cooperative with regard to Imam Musa al-Sadr's issue and his friends," said sources close to Amal.

Musa al-Sadr, the most prominent and charismatic Shiite voice in the decade before the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, disappeared alongside Sheikh Muhammad Yaacoub and the journalist Abbas Badreddine during an official visit to Libya in August 1978.

Lebanon has been accusing Libya of being responsible for his disappearance.

Meanwhile, Khreis told Xinhua that the summit must be postponed if Syria is not invited and Lebanon does not have a new government.

"How can we hold a summit that focuses on Syria's reconstruction without the attendance of Syria?" he asked.

Khreis said there may be a decision in the coming two days to postpone the summit.

Earlier in the day, Hossam Zaki, assistant Secretary General of the Arab League, said the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit will take place on time in Beirut.

"We came here to assist Lebanese authorities in the preparations for the summit," Zaki said upon his arrival at the Beirut airport from Cairo, leading a delegation of the Arab League. Enditem

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