The annual Arab League summit opens in Damascus today amid deep divisions over the crisis in Lebanon and unhappiness at growing Iranian influence in the Middle East.

Syria, which is hosting the event for the first time, has adopted a defiant tone in the face of a boycott by Lebanon and a humiliating low-level representation from some of the Arab world’s most powerful states, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Arab summits are usually marred by squabbles between leaders, but rarely has the depth of ill-feeling been so apparent and the disputes of such strategic consequence. “There hasn’t been a rift as serious as this at an Arab summit since the late 1970s when the Egyptians made peace with Israel,” Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, said.

Arab summits are customarily attended by heads of state but, in a calculated snub to Syria, Saudi Arabia announced last week that its ambassador to the Arab League would attend instead of King Abdullah. Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President, sent a junior minister of state to Damascus. Jordan, Morocco and Algeria are represented by Cabinet ministers. Several heads of state are attending, however, including the emirs of Kuwait and Qatar and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.

With conditions under Hamas rule in Gaza remaining desperate, Syria wants the Palestinian cause to be top of the agenda. However, the political crisis in Lebanon is likely to dominate the closed-door sessions.

Lebanon’s feuding political factions are backed by an array of powerful nations such as the US, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, making the tiny country a barometer of regional tensions and lending it an importance that far outstrips its size. It has been without a president since November because of disagreements pitting the Western-backed Government and its supporters against the pro-Syrian opposition led by the militant Shia Hezbollah. Both sides are deadlocked over the formation of a national unity government and a new electoral law.

The crisis, which has defied intense French and Arab mediation, shows no sign of ending and many Lebanese fear that it could turn violent. The Government blames Syria for instructing its allies to block a vote on a new president, the only Christian head of state in the Arab world, and took the decision to boycott the summit in protest.

Arab countries “should exert the utmost pressure on the Syrian regime to put an end to its ambitions in Lebanon and its constant attempts to regain control and impede the revival of the Lebanese state,” the March 14 parliamentary coalition, which backs the Government, said in a statement.

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