Second thoughts on reform
Dina Ezzat asks if Arabs are having cold feet over plans to reform the Arab League
An extraordinary Arab foreign ministers meeting that was scheduled to take place on 11 February, at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League, to discuss a proposed plan to reform the almost 60-year- old pan-Arab organisation was cancelled earlier this week. A new date is still being considered by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Arab foreign ministers.
The cancellation of the meeting, which has been scheduled for over two weeks, came in response to intense Kuwaiti lobbying. It was supported by a few other Arab countries who have openly expressed a preference to conduct the consultations on the eve of the ordinary bi-annual Arab foreign ministers meeting due to convene in the second week of March, or a little later along with the preparatory meetings for the Arab summit currently scheduled to convene in mid-March in Tunis. The cancellation, GCC sources say, was initially Kuwait's idea. Kuwait has been resisting Moussa's attempts to reform the league, both to avenge his opposition to the US war on and occupation of Iraq and to hamper an organisation that Kuwaiti pro-government newspaper routinely characterise as "dead and good for nothing but burial".
In the words of one Arab diplomat, "Kuwait has done so much to constrain the performance of the Arab League including the suspension of its annual contribution to the budget of the Arab League for the year 2003. And it doesn't look like the Kuwaitis are planning to pay the over-due contribution or the 2004 share any time soon."
The initiative of Kuwait -- the current chair of the GCC summit -- was supported by the six-member GCC that brings together Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, the current chair of the Arab summit. Most of these countries are feeling apprehensive about a few items on the proposed reform plan of action, particularly those related to the establishment of an Arab Parliament and the energised integration of the Arab civil society in the activities of the Arab League.
Instead of coming to Cairo for the extraordinary ministerial meeting, the GCC foreign ministers are now planning to have their own meeting on 11-12 February in Kuwait to finalise a collective GCC stance on much reform these six conservative Gulf monarchies are willing to tolerate.
Gulf diplomats have had little to say on the matter, except to refer to the Saudi reform proposal as their model. Saudi Arabia and Qatar each offered suggestions to the Arab League regarding the reform of collective Arab coordination and revamping the league to face the very serious challenges in front of it. The Saudi and Qatari proposals focus on a new momentum to economic cooperation and to the commitment of Arab countries to pay their dues to the Arab League and honour its resolutions.
The GCC countries are steering clear from any talk about the establishment of collective Arab non- governmental functions, unlike the other initiatives, particularly the Egyptian proposal of an Arab Parliament under the umbrella of the league. "Most of them need more time to be prepared for this kind of idea," commented one anonymous Arab diplomatic source.
According to this source, assurances recently offered by both Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Cairo to the GCC member states about the pace and limitations of the mandate of any future Arab Parliament still needs to be absorbed by the concerned countries.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who had earlier indicated a preference to delay the meeting "due to other commitments and travel plans", welcomed the delay of the extraordinary ministerial meeting. "11 February was not a good date for me," he said simply.
With Egypt and six Arab countries opposing the meeting's timing, the secretariat of the Arab League was in no position to go along with the meeting.
Moreover, it was becoming clear that some countries are still pondering the wisdom of the proposed reform plan.
Arab League Secretary-General Moussa has been working on this plan for the past few months. His final outcome, which was forwarded to all Arab capitals for comments and revision during the past weeks, was a streamlined and improvised version of the mélange of ideas presented by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Jordan.
Some legal and diplomatic aides who worked closely with Moussa on his volume of proposals that should be annexed to the original charter of the Arab League say that the plan of action accommodates the concerns and wishes of most Arab countries. "It is taking a middle ground between the Libyan idea that suggested declaring a total Arab Union and other ideas that wanted to confine reform to 'closer Arab cooperation' and some cosmetic changes here and there," one commented.
In addition to a few proposals regarding collective Arab political commitment and inter-Arab crisis management, the proposals also include detailed ideas in relation to collective Arab economic and cultural cooperation. "It basically sets the tone for a new phase of inter-Arab relations in view of the new world order, and even the new region order," commented one Arab League source.
Theoretically, once approved by the foreign ministers -- which is in question considering the recent delay of the consultative meeting -- these proposals are supposed to be presented to the Arab summit for either total or partial approval.
Now, both the scheduling for the Arab summit and the continuation of attempts to reform are in doubt. One source disclosed that some Arab capitals are already considering delaying the Arab summit a few weeks to allow for enough time for all Arab countries to carefully study the reform proposals and take a coherent stance on them.
Tunis is supposed to host and chair the next Arab summit in March 2004. During the past weeks, speculations have been rife on whether or not Tunis is going to host this next summit. The concurrence of a trip by Habib Bin Yehia, the Tunisian minister of foreign affairs, to several Gulf capitals, together with the declaration of the delay of the consultative meeting, raised questions about Tunisia's readiness to host such a potentially contentious summit.
Moussa had earlier voiced his confidence in the will and ability of Tunis to host and chair the summit. Moussa and Yehia were scheduled to hold talks on the summit today . Their meeting comes only a few days after a visit paid by an Arab League delegation to Tunis to discuss logistical preparations for the summit.
The delegation did not report very positive impressions about how far the Tunisians have come in preparing for a summit that is scheduled to convene in seven weeks.
