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26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000
Issue No. 505
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Composing the consensus

By Dina Ezzat

Although Libya walked out of the Arab summit and Iraq expressed reservations about the gathering's communiqué, the consensus among Arab diplomats is that conference may mark the beginning of a reconfiguration of intra-Arab relations, which have been strained for the past decade.

The communiqué, Arab diplomats tend to agree, reflects "the consensus of all parties." "Even when we note that Libya walked out and that Iraq expressed reservations, neither of these countries blocked the consensus. This, as such, is a positive sign of a new understanding among Arab countries," commented one diplomatic source.

The first draft of the communiqué was put together by Egypt in its capacity as the host and chair of the meeting. This draft included clear references to disappointment about Israel's anti-peace actions and their negative repercussions for relations with the Arab world. It also referred to the need to extend financial support to the Palestinian people.

Then, two weeks before the summit, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and his Syrian and Saudi counterparts Farouq Al-Sharaa and Saoud Al-Faisal spent over 18 hours with their aides hammering out this first draft. Sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that from that early phase negotiations were "not easy, [they were] even difficult, but always constructive."

Taking the hard-line, the Syrians sought to have their view included that "the time has come for the Arab world to show more strength in dealing with Israel." Adopting a more reticent approach, the Saudis were concerned that since the Palestinians had not decided to reject the peace process and believed that there was still a possibility that talks with the Israelis might be resumed, it was not the place for other Arab countries to adopt language that might end the peace process altogether.

The Saudis were also clear that they did not want any intimations of an oil embargo by the Gulf states "since this is not financially plausible at this stage." The Saudis also said they did not want the communiqué to dwell too much on the details of intra-Arab economic cooperation.

Concerning the Saudi position, an Egyptian source said, "We have to be understanding. The Saudis, like the Kuwaitis, have had to foot the bill for the extensive security arrangements in place in the Gulf since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait."

The Saudis were open-minded, although non-committal, about securing financial aid for the Palestinians.

For their part, the Syrians were sceptical about how this money should be channelled to the Palestinian people "as opposed to the Palestinian Authority." "It is no secret that Syria has little faith in the Palestinian Authority, but one must take note of the fact that at a time when Israeli aggression against Palestinians was escalating, the Syrians did not insist on bringing their stance on the PA into the Arab summit," commented a diplomat involved in the drafting process.

In the interim between discussions for the first draft of the communiqué and the arrival of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo about a week ago, many developments occurred. Egypt had hosted the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit that brought together Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak with President Hosni Mubarak, US President Bill Clinton and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The Syrians were not impressed, while the Saudis were pleased that Egypt took this initiative because, in the words of Saudi officials, they "support all attempts to get the peace process back on track if possible, particularly given that the Palestinians still have hopes for the process."

On the eve of the foreign ministers meeting to prepare for the summit, Moussa hosted a dinner for his counterparts and the Libyan permanent representative to the Arab League who headed his country's delegation both to the ministerial meeting and the summit. On that occasion, other countries began to express their views on the draft of the communiqué. "One could clearly tell that the Iraqis and Libyans felt the draft did not go far enough in its criticism of Israel, but nobody was being rude about it," commented an informed source. Moreover, according to the same source, "the Kuwaitis and Iraqis were civilised in avoiding each other and in accepting that their dispute would not be subject to discussion during the summit."

"To avoid diverting attention from our central cause, we believe that this summit should focus on one issue: the Palestinians," Iraqi Foreign Minister Said Al-Sahhaf said.

Nevertheless, Iraq made its views known about the communiqué during the foreign ministers' meeting. "We don't accept any reference to the peace process and we think that Israel should be referred to as the Zionist entity," Al-Sahhaf said. Abdel-Rahman Al-Taher Al-Honi, Libya's representative, spoke in support of Al-Sahhaf. During his remarks, Al-Honi began to direct discussion towards the current situation in the occupied territories and the demonstrations across the Arab world. "That was a point where there was a real danger of the ministers drifting away from discussions on the communiqué towards posturing which might have led to an argument, but Minister Amr Moussa was quick to ask everybody to return to the communiqué," another source commented. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Qader Bajamal seemed willing to help Moussa in this regard.

A similar scenario was repeated during the summit. "But at the end of the day none of these countries blocked the consensus, not even Syria which expressed strong reservations about the paragraph related to Arab-Israeli relations. They were critical of the fact that the paragraph fell short of calling on all Arab countries to sever relations with Israel, a stance that Damascus had hoped for."

An Arab diplomat had a biting comment to make on the Syrian position. "The Syrians wanted to use this paragraph to serve their own political interests, but why should all Arab countries end all relations with Israel today when we know very well that the Palestinian leaders would not hesitate to hold secret talks with Israel in some distant European city in a few weeks," he said.

Another point on which discussion was sometimes tense is that of financial support for the Palestinian people. "What was suggested in the first draft was a mechanism to help the Palestinians in general. In Cairo, the Saudis said that they were proposing two funds to help the Palestinians... which were to be administered by the Palestinian Authority," the diplomat added.

In his speech at the opening session of the summit, Abdullah, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, suggested the establishment of a $200 million fund to help the families of the martyrs of the Intifada along with a $800 million fund which would be used to support continued ownership of land by Palestinians living in Jerusalem who were sometimes forced to sell due to being in arrears in the steep taxes imposed by Tel Aviv. Saudi Arabia promised to give one quarter of this money.

During the first closed session of the summit Kuwait praised the Saudi move and described it as an "effective allocation of Arab resources to serve Arab causes." At that point Yasser Arafat said that "Palestinians keep hearing about financial assistance but never get to touch the money they hear about." Arafat also expressed concern that it would take "a very long time for this money to be collected and made accessible to Palestinians." However, despite his lack of optimism, Arafat did not take his criticism any further -- something he had done repeatedly only a few years ago when he openly criticised Gulf countries for failing the Palestinian cause.

So, in the final analysis, commented one diplomat, the drafting of this communiqué "witnessed something that has long been absent in the Arab world: the willingness to exercise self-restraint when discussion touches on thorny issues." He added, "Admittedly, this process also reflected that Arab countries are still unclear about how to best deal with Israeli intransigence."

Related stories:
Intifada in focus
States of emergency
Producing the body (count)
Tempered anger at the summit
Composing the consensus
The electronic Intifada
Horror in your sitting room
Variations on a theme
The big freeze
Solidarity days
'A valid fear'
Meet the press
The earth speaks Arabic
Also see Focus on Intifada 19 - 25 October 2000

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