Not forthcoming

[barb162]

20 - 26 July 2006
Not forthcoming
Arab countries are no longer interested in issuing a strong condemnation of Israeli aggression, writes Dina Ezzat

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The debate over whether to hold an Arab summit, which was proposed this week by Yemen, is far from being resolved. The Yemeni proposal was discussed Tuesday at an Arab League meeting at the level of permanent representatives. Only nine Arab countries (Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Djibouti, Kuwait and Mauritania) gave their initial approval to the proposal. A two-thirds quorum of the 22 Arab states is required to secure the possible convocation of an extraordinary Arab summit.

It was during the Arab foreign ministers' meeting at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League on Saturday that Yemen decided to propose the convocation of an extraordinary Arab summit to allow for serious decision-making on collective Arab reaction to the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Lebanon.

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Most sources agree that the Arab foreign ministers meeting witnessed the division of Arab countries into three camps: Egypt-Jordan-Saudi Arabia, which has the support of Morocco, Kuwait and Bahrain; a camp comprising Syria and Lebanon (reunited after a period of bitter disagreements) which has the lukewarm support of Algeria, Sudan, Yemen and Qatar. The third camp is made up of Arab countries apparently indifferent.


The issues of disagreement were not related to how far should the Arabs go in condemning Israel because there is a clear-cut limit in this respect. What Arab foreign ministers were in disagreement over was how far should they go in criticising Hizbullah and Hamas for what many insisted on calling "miscalculated moves" and how much should they blame Iran for instigating such moves on the part of Hamas and Hizbullah.
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http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/804/re92.htm