Arab League member states did not agree on who should fill Syria's seat at the forthcoming Arab summit. While the Syrian opposition had been begging members of the League to give it the seat, they were not convinced. However, Ahmad Jarba, president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NCSROF), was given the chance to speak at the opening session of the meeting, an honour that was also granted to his predecessor, Moaz Al-Khatib, last year. Proposals to give the Syrian seat on the League to the opposition have so far been shot down by countries sympathetic to the regime headed by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Many Syrians, including those active in the opposition, are having difficulty seeing the NCSROF as a viable government-in-exile. Many have noted that Damascus is still holding its UN seat. While this continues to be the case, the Arab League cannot hand over its seat to the largely divided Syrian opposition. Secretary-General of the Arab League Nabil Al-Arabi said that the matter would be discussed by Arab heads of state during the meetings. Three weeks ago, the opposition had high expectations that there would be a change in League policy and that Haytham Al-Maleh, director of the NCSROF Legal Office, would be representing Syria at the Arab Summit. However, League regulations did not allow such a move without the unanimous vote of all member states. With Lebanon, Iraq and Algeria all maintaining working relations with the Syrian regime and expected to oppose the move, the League left things as they stand at present. Wael Mirza, a NCSROF official, said that the organisation had only itself to blame for its lack of confidence in its ability to represent the country. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly before the summit proceedings, Mirza said that “the non-assignment of the seat [to the opposition] is the result of pressure by pro Al-Assad Arab regimes. But the NCSROF's poor performance is also giving these countries a pretext” to oppose the move. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership in November 2011, eight months after the uprising against the Al-Assad regime began. The latter's brutal suppression of the protesters was cited as the main cause for the suspension. During a meeting ahead of the Doha Summit in March 2013, Arab foreign ministers decided to postpone the assignment of the Syrian seat to the NCSROF until the latter had formed an executive committee empowered with the duties of a government-in-exile. However, the decision was not binding on any state, and as decisions in the League have to be passed unanimously it bears no clear consequences for the immediate future. Assignment of the Syrian seat aside, the crisis in the country topped the agenda of the league summit in Kuwait. But few Syrians had much hope for effective action by the Arab world's top political gathering. For the Arab League to succeed where the US, Russia and the UN have failed would be wishful thinking, according to Syrian commentators. Mirza also did not think that the Kuwait Summit would do much to end the fighting in Syria. “We doubt the ability of the summit to give anything substantial to the Syrian revolution,” he said. “The institution is shackled by regulations. It is incapable of providing the minimum required for Arab national security.” The recent spat between Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has had the potential of breaking the deadlock on Syria, according to some observers. The Qataris are known to support several Syrian armed opposition groups, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, while the Saudis are mostly backing moderate Syrian groups. But senior Saudi officials recently indicated that the Gulf had a united position on Syria. Most Arab countries have been urging the Syrian regime to discontinue its attacks on civilians and to stop all violations of human rights and bring to justice those involved. The regime has so far ignored pleas from individual Arab states as well as from the Arab League. Al-Assad himself described the League as “having no legitimacy and capable of giving none,” insisting that the league needed Syria more than Syria needed the Arab League. “The Arab League without Syria will be shorn of its Arabism,” he remarked. Most countries have also refrained from handing Syrian embassies over to the opposition. Unless the regime shows signs of defeat, or the opposition holds considerable swathes of territory and acts as a credible challenger for power, it is unlikely that any regional or international forum will give it more than verbal support. “There is nothing in the near future to suggest that the opposition will do what it takes to improve its performance,” Mirza said. For now, the Syrian opposition seem to be rudderless, leaderless, and disunited. To earn international and regional credibility, it will have not only to reshuffle its leaders, but also to rethink its structures and methods – a task that it hasn't even begun. “Three years after the revolution started, it is time for an opposition body that lives up to the experience and sacrifices of the Syrian people,” Mirza said. For its part, the Syrian regime remains dismissive of the Arab League. It banned the League from attending the Geneva II Conference, saying that international powerbroker Lakhdar Brahimi should attend as a UN, and not an Arab League, emissary. The opposition wants the League to step up its involvement in Syria, however. It is hoping that the forthcoming summit will sanction the sending of peace-keepers to the country, and some opposition members have even suggested that the entire country be placed in the joint custodianship of the UN and the Arab League. But this is all far-fetched. Despite mounting Arab concerns over the spiralling crisis in Syria, the Arab League is bound by its own regulations. Without an unanimous vote, it is incapable of moving ahead.
