Not matter how far from the Arab summit he is, Gaddafi can always vie for the headlines "Did you watch Gaddafi?" "What did Gaddafi say?" "Did Gaddafi actually insult all Arab leaders?" These were the most common questions asked in the corridors of the Arab summit Tuesday evening, reports Dina Ezzat. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was on Al-Jazeera satellite television direct from Tripoli for a one-on-one with the channel's top news anchor Jamil Azer. The near 50-minute interview focused on the summit. Azer's questions were predictable in prompting typically shocking remarks from Gaddafi. Gaddafi, however, was surprising in the intensity of his remarks on the eve of an Arab summit he decided his country would boycott. It was possible that Libya would have participated in the Arab summit if it were convened elsewhere other than Saudi Arabia, Gaddafi told Azer. After all he had attended past summits that were held in Khartoum and Tunis. Sour relations between Gaddafi and the host of this year's Arab summit, King Abdullah, go back to 2003 when they had a showdown during an open session of the Arab summit hosted in Sharm El-Sheikh by Egypt and chaired by Bahrain. Neither the Egyptians nor the Bahrainis managed to contain the crisis. The open session was suddenly taken off air as Gaddafi and Abdullah exchanged accusations over the presence of foreign -- especially American -- troops in Arab Gulf countries on the eve of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Since that day all attempts to reconcile the two leaders have failed. Abdullah boycotted consequent Arab summits that convened in the three Arab capitals that are closest to Gaddafi: Tunis, Algiers and Khartoum. Saudi officials always indicated a sense of concern for the safety of Abdullah. "Gaddafi has so many affiliates in this capital; one can never tell," one Saudi diplomat once said. However, according to the interview given to Al-Jazeera Tuesday, Gaddafi's decision to leave the seat of Libya vacant during the Arab summit is not directly related to this episode. "There were two reasons behind that decision: one has a moral grounding and the other is more practical," he said. On the moral front, Gaddafi said that he felt that in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2003, "if one was to call this thing a summit at all, [things had] stooped really low." Gaddafi said he refrained from responding to the insults made against him by Abdullah and expected that the Arab summit -- as a moral forum -- would respond by freezing the participation of Saudi Arabia. "But it seems that Arab leaders felt no shame in tolerating this low level [of conduct] ... But as an international leader I could not put up with it," he said. Gaddafi told Azer that he would have been pleased if Arab leaders "who failed to freeze the membership of Saudi Arabia out of fear that the Saudis would suspend the financial aid they extend to many Arab countries ... would agree to suspend the membership of Libya." On the practical side, Gaddafi said he could not allow himself to be party to "a conspiracy hatched by countries opposed to Arabs and Muslims". According to Gaddafi, the conspiracy that he wished to avoid aims to gear Arabs against Iran and to divide Muslims into Sunni versus Shia strife. "This is all done under the umbrella of the new strategy of George Bush on Iraq that was rejected in the US and supported by Arab countries even before they learned of the details of this so-called new strategy." But above all, Gaddafi said, that he was not willing to take part in the ongoing sale that Arabs have declared of the rights of Palestinians. "Today, the Palestinian cause has become prey, and Arab leaders are acting like the wolves who eat it in the interest of the stability and durability of their own regimes," he said. "Each and every one of those leaders simply wants to please the US by showing that he is the one who can help end the Palestinian cause ... They do so in the hope that the US decides that his is a good regime that should be maintained," the Libyan leader said. He added: "But these leaders are much mistaken, because the US is well aware that all these regimes have simply expired." According to Gaddafi, there is no point in having an Arab summit because US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- that he referred to as "my beloved dark lady, sweet Liza of African origins" -- has decided for Arab leaders what they should and should not do. Arab leaders, he said, simply jump to please the US secretary of state, sending their foreign ministers and chief intelligence officers to get orders. "So Arab leaders could have simply stayed at home because the whole outcome is decided in Washington," Gaddafi said. Gaddafi declared his opposition to debate over the Arab peace initiative that he found undermining of legitimate Palestinian rights. Again Gaddafi argued the case for a one state solution, "Isratine," where all Jews and Palestinians could live together in democracy. He argued, too, that Western interest in establishing an international tribunal to try the killers of late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, or to examine the situation in Darfur, is only the sign of growing foreign interference in Arab affairs. Further, Gaddafi proposed a truce in Iraq to allow for secret negotiations between militants and the US that could lead to an end to the foreign occupation of Iraq. Gaddafi's remarks might have occasioned much laughter from journalists covering the Arab summit in Riyadh, but top Arab delegates, venting their anger with journalists covering the event, felt no such amusement. Some were ready with the usual anti-Gaddafi invective: "This man is one screw loose." Others made fun of his proposals to contain Arab crises, saying: "If only it was as easy as it comes across in his imaginary world." But many concurred that it was best that Gaddafi decided to boycott the summit, adding that it would have been a nightmare if he had delivered these statements in Riyadh.
