Arab discord weakens impact of summit

MIDDLE EAST: ARAB LEADERS gather today in the Syrian capital for a summit of discord.

While the flags of all 22 Arab League members fly alongside Syria's banner from lampposts along the airport highway, only 12 rulers are attending. Lebanon is boycotting the meeting and the rulers of heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Jordan are sending medium level delegations. Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki cancelled because he is commanding the crackdown on Shia militias in Basra and Baghdad.

Jordan's King Abdullah is staying in Amman to receive US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice who is in the region in bid to revive faltering talks between Palestinians and Israelis.

Beirut, Riyadh and Cairo blame Damascus for Lebanon's failure to elect a president since the incumbent retired last November because Syria supports the Hizbullah-led Lebanese opposition.

The opposition and the US-backed government have agreed to elect army chief Michel Suleiman but they have been unable to agree on a national unity cabinet and a new electoral law for the 2009 parliamentary poll.

Arab commentators say the summit has become hostage to the traditional competition between the emotional pull of pan-Arab nationalism, represented by Syria, and the political push of the West, dominated by the US. This push-and-pull has been exacerbated by the contest for regional influence between the US and Iran whose foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki is an observer at the summit.

Syrian human rights activist and former legislator, Dr George Jabbour, has observed that "Egypt and Saudi Arabia are closely associated with the US while Rice's visit gives [ Jordan's King] Abdullah an excuse not to attend. The White House wants to scupper the summit" in order to "isolate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad" and "fragment the Arabs."

But Dr Jabbour argues that since the Arabs meet annually, it is not unusual for some to be absent. In his view, the crisis in Lebanon has to be resolved by the Lebanese rather than Arab leaders who must focus on the region's major problems. These are the Fatah-Hamas rift in the Palestinian camp, Iraqi instability, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

On these three key issues there is consensus. The Arabs agree, in spite of US and Israeli opposition, that the rival Fatah and Hamas factions should reconcile and reunite under the umbrella of the Palesti- nian Authority. Similarly, the Arabs say Iraq's warring communities and factions should reconcile and form a government representing the entire country rather than just four US-allied Kurdish and Shia parties.

The Arabs also remain committed to the plan for a comprehensive regional settlement put forward by Saudi Arabia in 2002 .

This plan calls for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territory occupied in 1967 in exchange for full Arab normalisation of ties with Israel. There was some discussion that the plan should be dropped because it has been ignored by Israel, the US and EU. But it was decided to retain the offer to maintain pressure on Israel to negotiate and to demonstrate that the Arabs are serious about making peace.

Dr Jabbour predicted the "summit will be smooth but it will not have a big effect unless mechanisms are adopted to implement its resolutions. We have a pile of resolutions which have not been implemented. Like the UN."

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times