29 March - 4 April 2001
Issue No.527
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 29 March - 4 April 2001 Issue No.527 |
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Solidarity steps
As expected, Iraq and Palestine emerged as the major issues at the Arab Summit. Dina Ezzat reports from Amman
As the two day Amman summit concluded yesterday in the Jordanian capital a new tone in Arab relations appeared to be emerging.
The wording of the Amman Declaration and the Final Declaration of the summit reflected new positions on the two issues that dominated proceedings -- Iraq and the future of the peace process.
Iraq, to all intents and purposes an Arab outcast for the best part of the last decade, certainly sensed light at the end of the tunnel, and its reintegration within the Arab fold now appears to be only a matter of time.
Negotiations on wording acceptable to Iraq on the one hand, and to both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on the other, for both the Amman and Final Declarations, continued until the last minutes when a consensus was eventually reached, though no resolutions were included.
Indeed, it was as he was reading the resumé of the Final Declaration that Arab League Secretary-General Essmat Abdel-Meguid received a note from the summit that allowed for the inclusion of the few lines that broached Iraqi-Kuwait relations in both the Final and Amman Declarations.
King Abdullah of Jordan, the current chair of the Arab summit, was mandated to work in coordination with Amr Moussa, Arab League secretary-General as of 15 May, and other Arab leaders, to reach a clearer understanding on the matter.
"We come out of this summit with a better understanding of the matter and the views of both sides... we did not manage to agree on all the details during the summit; this will be taken care of in the consultations that will be conducted by his Majesty," Abdel-Ilah El-Khatib told a press conference after the summit concluded.
The Amman Declaration included language that clearly called for lifting the embargo against Iraq.
"We support the lifting of sanctions against Iraq," said Saudi Foreign Minister Saoud El-Faissal. Tellingly, though, Saudi Arabia's representation to the summit was down-graded from Crown Prince Abdullah to Sultan Bin Abdel-Aziz, the deputy prime minister, a move many interpreted as an expression of Saudi reservations at the increasing pressure placed on the kingdom to accept, and thereby open the door for a Kuwaiti approval of, moves towards lifting sanctions against Iraq.
AN END TO SUFFERING, A FUTURE FOR HOPE: How will the Arab summit change the lives of Iraqis and Palestinians whose daily struggle for survival is surely the most important issue on any leader's agenda?
(photos: Reuters; AP)
The Amman Declaration's statements on lifting sanctions were, too, coupled with an assertion of the need for neighbouring countries to respect each others' national security concerns. Support for this formula was vociferously offered by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Prince Sabah, head of his country's delegation.
Blame for the failure to include a resolution on the Iraq-Kuwait situation was placed firmly on the shoulders of the Kuwaiti delegation by Iraq's Foreign Minister Said El-Sahhaf. "The Kuwaiti delegation would not even agree to wording approved by Iraq after having been revised by the heads of state of Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Yemen, and Qatar," he said.
Sahhaf agreed, however, that an end is in sight to the "sorry state" that the Arab world has found itself in for a decade now, and that a closure of the file of the Iraq-Kuwait affair is now conceivable. Iraq's foreign minister pledged his country would work closely with King Abdullah.
"[The summit sent] a clear message to the US that the Arab world is moving forward on the Iraq issue," commented one Egyptian diplomatic source. "And the significance of this message will certainly be underlined by President Hosni Mubarak when he meets with US President George W Bush in the White House next Saturday."
Another unmistakable emerged from the summit when Arab leaders accepted a Syrian proposal to adopt a resolution calling for the "activation of an Arab boycott against Israel."
"Boycott is a strong and peaceful weapon that we should use. We do not need to deprive ourselves of such a weapon," said Farouk El-Sharaa, Syria's foreign minister.
Neither Egypt nor Jordan, both of which have peace treaties with Israel, expressed opposition to the proposal.
"The situation in the occupied territories does not permit any one to oppose the taking of any measures in response to the increasing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," commented an Arab League source.
While the summit approved financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh proposed the establishment of popular funds in each country to collect aid, in either cash or kind, for the PA.
"Since the countries neighbouring Palestine will not open their borders for an Arab army to help liberate the Palestinian territories let us think of practical ideas," Saleh told a press conference.
Resolutions adopted by the summit and the language of the Amman Declaration reflect increasing Arab impatience with Israel's attitude. "There is no doubt in my mind that the tone of frustration will only increase if Israel does not retract its intransigence," one delegate said.
Addressing the root causes of Palestinian frustration was the recipe suggested by Foreign Minister Amr Moussa to end violence in the occupied territories. Answering a question on the recent wave of explosions in Israel Moussa said: "We are against violence but we are also against the failure of the peace process."
Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, on the other hand, adopted a far from conventional stance: "Let us send delegations to the US to express our uncontested willingness to recognise Israel as a member of the Arab League and then we can deal with Israel in this organisation," he reportedly told a closed session of the summit.
Setting a new precedent, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was in Amman for the summit, which expressed its support for Annan's nomination for a second term.
It was also agreed that the next summit would take place in Beirut, and not the capital of the UAE as originally scheduled.
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