Lebanon's Premier Fuad Seniora has stated he won't go to the U.N. summit or the General Assembly session in New York later this month if President Emile Lahoud insists on leading the Lebanese delegation. "If he goes, I won't go," Seniora said in remarks reported by several Beirut television networks on Wednesday. "We cannot leave the country at the same time in the current situation."
Lahoud is determined to go despite reports that the Bush administration does not welcome his presence on American soil, Naharnet reported.
Seniora said he had advised the president to refrain from going to New York, saying "I won't accompany him if he insists on going."
There are also doubts over Syrian President Bashar Assad's trip to New York. "We did not receive any official confirmation from the Syrian capital on whether President Bashar al-Assad will head the Syrian delegation to the United Nations Summit that will open September 14,” Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations told the Syrian T.V. Tuesday evening.
