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Summit
Cairo, March 29, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Arab leaders are meeting in Jordan on Wednesday for an annual summit which have being overshadowed by regional conflicts and U.S.-backed campaigns against Islamic State militants, the report said.
It said that some 16 Arab heads of state are expected to attend the event in Jordan’s Dead Sea resort excluding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“ Bashar al-Assad was not invited for such gatherings since the 22-member Arab League suspended his country months after a civil strife erupted in his country in March 2011.
“`Devastating wars in Syria, Yemen and Libya top the agenda of the Dead Sea conference,’’ Arab League officials said.
In recent years, Islamic State has taken advantage of regional turmoil and established a foothold in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
The decades-long Palestinian-Israeli dispute is another topic of discussion at the Jordan gathering.
Arab summiteers are anticipated to back Palestinians’ long-standing demand that a fully sovereign Palestinian state should be set up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, most of which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
The summit comes ahead of separate meetings in Washington between U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan in April. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Maharazu Ahmed