Lebanon to Attend Jeddah Summit Set to Combat Extremism

Lebanon received an invitation to attend a conference hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss the pressing regional developments, including the growing threats by takfiris in the Arab world.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Monday, the meeting follows a NATO summit, which was held on Friday in Wales, and will focus on ways to safeguard the country from extremism.

The conference comes in light of efforts to create a broad coalition to defeat the Islamic State group, which led an offensive that overran parts of Iraq in June and also holds significant territory in neighboring Syria.

Islamist gunmen belonging to the al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front and the IS group briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, the most serious spillover yet of Syria's conflict into the neighboring country.

Arab states agreed on Sunday to take the "necessary measures" to confront Islamic State militants, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said, after a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

H.K.

M.T.