Half of Arab leaders are boycotting the Arab summit hosted by Syria, an Arab League official said on Friday. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad will host the leaders of Algeria, Comoros, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, the official said. However, Yemen's official Saba news agency later reported that the Arabian Peninsula country would be represented by its vice president. Jordan will send only its permanent representative at the Arab League to the annual two-day meeting starting Saturday - more snubs to an event Syria had hoped would dispel the impression that it is isolated in the region. The Lebanese government is boycotting the event completely, and its closest allies - Saudi Arabia and Egypt - announced earlier this week that they would send only low-level delegations. Bahrain sent a deputy prime minister, another low-level delegation leader. The leaders of Iraq, Morocco, Bahrain and Oman will also be absent, while Lebanon is boycotting the event. Somalia and Djibouti have not yet officially announced their level of participation. As leaders began gathering in Damascus on Friday, Assad greeted the first arrival Comoran President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, followed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. On Thursday, Syria's press hailed the summit a success. “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. The ruling party mouthpiece Al-Baath said the summit had managed to avoid external influence. The United States last week called on Arab countries to think carefully about attending the summit, accusing Syria of blocking the election of a president in Lebanon. 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, backed by the West and most Arab states, and the Hezbollah-led opposition. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will not attend the meeting because of “special circumstances,” the official added, without elaborating. __
