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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Heritage Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
Back in the lead
By Dina Ezzat and Rasha SaadIt has been an eventful week for Egyptian-Arab relations. Last Thursday, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa summoned the US ambassador to Egypt to tell him that Cairo was very upset about the continued Israeli aggression against Lebanon and that Egypt believed that Washington had a role to play in stopping these attacks. Two days later, President Hosni Mubarak arrived in Beirut for a short visit to declare Egypt's solidarity with Lebanon.
"This visit is an indication of Egypt's commitment to Arab solidarity," commented Moussa, who has recently been at pains to underline Egypt's Arab belonging.
This visit to Lebanon may only be the beginning of an enduring effort that Cairo believes is its responsibility in order to restore unity to the Arab world. The past few days have been very eventful, with a number of meetings as well as telephone diplomacy. The results have been described as "very constructive".
"Take for example the visit of the president to Lebanon. This was not only a symbol of support for Lebanon, but also for Syria," commented a senior official, noting that coming at a time when Lebanon was being attacked Mubarak's visit underlined Egypt's support for the Lebanese people's right to resist the occupation, a right which has long been backed by Syria.
And, earlier this month, Moussa managed to get Algeria and Morocco to overcome their long-standing differences over Western Sahara when both Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika and King Mohamed of Morocco pledged to take part in a summit for Africa and the European Union. "This is a major breakthrough in inter-Arab relations," commented one Egyptian diplomat. "This coming summit will be the first meeting in a long time where the heads-of-state of both Algeria and Morocco are present."
Sources suggest that it is Egypt's intention to resume its efforts to bring the two countries even closer together.
Egypt has also been trying very hard to ease tension between Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "This is no easy task because the Syrians feel that they have been let down by the Palestinians many times before. But it is our belief that coordination between the Arab sides in the peace process is worth the effort even though the Syrians have not been very receptive so far," commented one informed source.
Moreover, Egypt has welcomed a proposal currently being processed by Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid to convene an Arab summit meeting on an annual basis. Egypt is currently coordinating closely with Yemen to get this proposal adopted by the next Arab foreign ministers meeting, though so far the idea has not been met with much enthusiasm from Gulf countries. Egypt has lobbied to get the next ministerial convene on its scheduled date of 12-13 March. "It is impossible that at this historic juncture of the history of the region that the Arab foreign ministers do not meet on time," commented one diplomatic source. "It is bad enough that the Arab summit is floundering under so many inter-Arab misgivings," he added.
And, in the line-up for both Mubarak and Moussa are a number of visits and meetings with their Arab counterparts. These are aimed at further bolstering Egypt's effort to reconstruct an effective Arab order.
It is expected that Egypt will work on renewing its regular consultations with Saudi Arabia and Syria. This three-way consultation was behind the convocation of the last Arab summit in 1996. A good part of these expected consultations will likely focus on finding ways to support the Arab parties in the peace negotiations with Israel.
Also subject to discussion in these consultations are ways to revive the Damascus Declaration grouping, which includes Egypt, Syria and the five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The grouping has been largely ineffective since its founding shortly after the liberation of Kuwait. Iraq will also figure very high on the agenda of these talks. "The current humanitarian situation in Iraq is far too tragic to overlook. The Arab countries need to think on what they want to do with Iraq," said an Egyptian diplomatic source.
The subject of Iraq and inter-Arab relations was very prominent in the meeting that Moussa had in Cairo this week with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.
Also expected in the coming few days is a meeting between Moussa and his Moroccan counterpart. The talks will touch on the issue of Egypt's observer status in the Maghreb Union. "Egypt is very keen on maintaining close ties with its eastern Arab neighbours, but it also wants to engage with its Arab neighbours to the west," said one diplomatic source. Added another, "We are in the heart of the Arab world and we should act accordingly."
All the while, Egypt is stressing one important factor; the need to create common interests, such as economic cooperation and hopefully an Arab common market.
According to Mohamed Sobeih, Palestinian representative to the Arab League, Egypt is now ready to resume its leadership role in the region. The Arab boycott of Egypt after it signed a peace agreement with Israel had backfired. "Egypt's absence [from the Arab political arena] has negatively affected the Arab world" which, according to Sobeih was not able to find an Arab power to substitute the Egyptian political presence.
For Sobeih, Egypt is also the Arab country most capable of "restraining Israel's transgressions".
"Egypt is sending a clear message to the Israelis, the West and the Arab world that it is not prepared to forego its role as the leading Arab state come war or peace," commented a high-ranking Egyptian diplomat who asked for his name to be withheld. He added, "It is also a message to those who think that Egypt's role will diminish, or even be relinquished, after the peace process is settled; if they thought we were there to finish up the peace process and disappear then they should know that Egypt is not going to go away."
