28 March - 3 April 2002
Issue No.579
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579 |
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A taste of thyme
The Lebanese stamp on the Arab summit went way beyond providing hospitality
"The convocation of the Arab summit this year in Beirut gives it a special flavour," said Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in his opening remarks before the Arab foreign ministers meeting that took place on Monday, Dina Ezzat reports. Moussa did not elaborate much on what he meant by his reference to "a special flavour" which could mean anything from the gracious nature of Lebanese hospitality to the political impact of the venue of the summit on the language coming out of it.
The convocation of the summit in Lebanon, out of the Arabic alphabetical sequence, was decided last year in the Amman summit when Sheikh Zayed of the United Arab Emirates declared that due to health reasons he will be unable to host the summit. And, since that very day there has been much talk about the wisdom of holding such a high-level Arab conference in Beirut, a city that has not totally recovered from the negative impact of a civil war that lasted for 15 years. There were actually moments when it seemed that the summit will not be held in Beirut at all.
A few months ago Libya officially requested the Arab League to hold the conference at its Cairo headquarters in view of the death threats made against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi by some Shi'ite factions in Lebanon. Lebanese Shi'ites accuse Gaddafi of involvement in the kidnapping and consequent mysterious disappearance of one of one of its leading figures. It took Moussa several weeks of shuttle diplomacy to fix this matter and persuade Gaddafi to send his Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Al-Trieki to the summit.
Security was not the only concern that made several Arab capitals reluctant to go to Beirut for their summit. Political concerns were as pressing.
"We are all well aware of the complexity of the political agenda that Lebanon is obliged to pursue," commented one Beirut-based Arab diplomat who asked for his name to be withheld. This agenda is indeed multi-layered. First of all there are the many political and sectional trends that share in the governance of the country. The presidency, the government and the Parliament have contradicting agendas that often keep them from agreeing on the overall political line of the state. The impact of this internal conflict of agendas was made evidently clear when Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri suggested a few weeks ago that the Arab summit be postponed for a few months while Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri was arguing that the summit needs to be held on time and Lebanese President Emil Lahoud was trying to bridge positions.
Then, there is of course Hizbullah that liberated the occupied south after 18 years of Israeli occupation. Hizbullah's impact on the politics of Lebanon is often emphasised by the visits made by international dignitaries, including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to Hizbullah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. Indeed, even the Israeli government sends envoys to negotiate with Hizbullah. Hizbullah is a power to be reckoned with in Lebanon.
These different compartments of the Lebanese state have to worry, each in a different way, about the language that will emanate from Beirut, specially concerning issues related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The different, or rather contrasting, positions taken by these different groups on the Saudi peace initiative did not make it very easy for the Lebanese negotiating team. On Sunday, to commemorate a religious holiday, Nasrallah pleaded with the Arab leaders to drop any talk about making peace with Israel and to offer military support to the Palestinian Intifada to which he pledged maximum support. Nasrallah's statements came less than 24 hours after Lebanese President Lahoud had told the Lebanese press that his country will not allow Palestinian activists residing in the Lebanese Palestinian refugee camps to launch any actions against Israel from Lebanese territories.
Indeed, the issue of Palestinian refugees is vital for Lebanon. It is perhaps the one thing that all Lebanese agree on. The Lebanese government says it has some 380,000 Palestinian refugees living in camps. "Lebanon cannot afford to repatriate those refugees. It is out of the question. The Lebanese ethnic diversity is difficult to balance and we do not need any added headaches," commented one Lebanese official. Nasrallah, in his Sunday speech argued that for any Arab to accept or promote repatriation of Palestinian refugees to any place other than Palestine is only akin to the selling of Palestine to the Israelis.
"Palestinian refugees have to get their legitimate right of return in accordance with UN Resolution 194," commented Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud in a press conference at the conclusion of the Arab foreign ministers meeting on Monday.
Actually, the draft Beirut declaration coming out of this foreign ministers' meeting had more than one reference to this point. The right of return of Palestinian refugees came in both a separate paragraph and in other paragraphs related to Arab-Israeli conflict.
Unlike the Cairo and Amman declarations, issued by the last two Arab summits in 2000 and 2001, the Beirut Declaration includes lengthy references to issues related to the Lebanese point of view on the Arab-Israeli conflict. These included references to the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons and the right of financial compensation to be made by Israel to Lebanon.
Obviously, the point of view of Syria, Lebanon's close associate, was also more strongly felt, to say the least, in the draft Beirut Declaration than in the Cairo or Amman declarations.
Moreover, Lebanon's obvious financial needs for reconstruction of the infrastructure wrecked in years of Israeli military invasions and civil war had its impact on the summit in the meetings of the Economic and Social Council as in every other meeting.
But, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the impact of having Lebanon as a host was its keenness to use this summit to give itself a face-lift. "Lebanon wants to come out of this summit as a different Arab state," commented one Arab ambassador in Beirut. He added, "The Lebanese want to stop being perceived by the rest of the Arab world as a small Arab country that is a subordinate of Syria. The Lebanese know that they will not emerge from the Arab summit as a leading Arab country but they also want to bypass their image as a 'minor' Arab state that is dealt with in Damascus." To do this the Lebanese delegation, Arab officials say, were making an exceptional effort to be involved in all the details of drafting both the Beirut Declaration and the summit resolutions. "At times they overdid it but it is understandable," commented one delegate.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese were doing everything possible to project a "post-war" image of their country. Indeed, Lebanese hospitality was offered at its best. "It is an honour for us to host this summit," said Lebanese Prime Minister Al-Hariri. "We have to use this summit to show the world that the war years are over and that Lebanon is back on its feet."
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