Libya will not participate in the 2019 Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, set to be held 18-20 January in Beirut, as a result of a crisis between Lebanon and Libya.
On Sunday, the Lebanese authorities prevented Libyan businessmen from entering Lebanon to participate in the summit.
The Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party affiliated with Lebanon’s Shia community, removed Libyan flags from outside Beirut’s Biel Center where the summit will be convened and replaced them with their own.
They are opposed to Libya’s participation in the economic summit and its ties with Lebanon because of the 1978 disappearance of the movement’s founder, Imam Musa al- Sadr, and two of his companions during an official visit to Libya when it was ruled by Muammar Ghaddafi.
Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Sayala declared on Monday that Libya will not part take in the Beirut’s summit, and its seat will remain “vacant.”
Meanwhile, Libya’s High State Council denounced the incident, demanding the severing of ties with Lebanon over the “insult” as Libyan newspaper Al Wasat reported.
of taking the Libyan flag down.
The council called on the Arab League to announce a “clear stance” on this incident and exclude Lebanon from any pan-Arab event “until the Lebanese authorities assume their responsibility and abide by diplomatic norms.”
The fate of Imam Musa al- Sadr, a hugely influential Shia cleric, has not been known since his disappearance in Libya as some believed he was killed and others claimed he was being held captive.
In February 2011, a former colonel in Gaddafi’s army said Libyan agents had assassinated Sadr and buried him in the southern city of Sabha.
However, the situation became more complex when a Libyan opposition activist, Sami al-Masrati, claimed Sadr was still alive, which support the claim made by Musa Sadr’s son in August 2010 that his father was still being held captive.
The search for the truth about Sadr has strained Libyan-Lebanese relations since the end of the Lebanese civil war.
In 2010, Lebanese former President Michel Sleiman boycotted the Arab summit in Libya over the Sadr issue at the request of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who is a leader of the Shia Amal party.
