More Arab leaders snub Syria and skip summit

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Jonathan Wright

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - More Arab kings and presidents on Friday joined the long list of leaders staying away from an Arab summit hit by a campaign to punish the Syrian hosts for backing the Lebanese opposition.

The Yemeni vice president will represent his country and Jordan will send only its permanent representative at the Arab League to the annual two-day meeting opening on 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, which is close to the Saudis, sent a deputy prime minister, another low-level delegation leader.

Diplomats and commentators say the United States has been the driving force behind the campaign to dissuade Arab leaders from going to Syria, which prides itself on its resistance to U.S. and Israeli policies.

"The Americans have been working on ensuring low-level representation in the run-up to the summit. We are seeing now a snowball effect," said one diplomat in the Syrian capital.

Another diplomat noted that Saudi Arabia made its decision shortly after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited the kingdom last week.

Veteran Syrian journalist Thabet Salem said Syria still aimed to show it was a "no surrender" country whose policies were in line with popular Arab sentiment.