Dina Ezzat tries to understand what has prompted Arab leaders to examine the question of reform In the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who happens to be the current chair of the Arab summit, hosted a limited Arab summit to examine future plans to revamp the performance of the Arab League. Gaddafi's guests included President Hosni Mubarak, Qatari Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa who was the previous chair of the summit, Iraqi President Jalal Talibani who is the next chair, and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salah. Also participating in the summit was Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Essentially Gaddafi had hoped -- although he was realistic enough not to really expect -- that this summit would give careful thought to his call to establish the "Arab United States". This was not the plan of any of his guests who are in favour, according to the statements of their foreign ministers, of a more gradual approach to getting Arab countries closer. As agreed by the Tripoli summit this gradual approach would for now include the convocation of two Arab summits every year; one in March, as the case has been since 2001, and one in the fall. Additional limited Arab summits or emergency summits are also possible, according to the scheme that was adopted in the Libyan capital this week. Along with the expansion of the summit mechanism, the five Arab leaders meeting in the Libyan capital approved the upgrade of some already established or under construction bodies like the Arab Court of Justice and the Arab Security and Peace Council. The Tripoli summit demanded of Moussa to work out a plan of action to upgrade Arab relations and Arab cooperation. This scheme should be examined in the first fall summit to be held next October in Libya. And the span of implementation for this scheme should be "around five years". This is indeed the most curious part. Moussa's second term in office expires next May. In 2011 he would have completed 10 years as the head of the Arab organisation that receives very little attention from its 22 member states. Moussa himself has repeatedly expressed frustration over the scope of commitment that Arab countries give to their organisation. Before the annual Arab summit held in March Moussa reiterated a statement that he has been making since the beginning of this year: 10 years at the head of the Arab League is enough. The question thus is obvious: if Moussa is leaving next year, why is he formulating a plan for five years -- the duration of a new, and third, term that Egypt is pressing Moussa, a former foreign minister, to accept. For Egypt, a third term for Moussa is crucial. The headquarters of the Arab League is faced with what some call Arab dissent. Several Arab capitals have been calling for an end to Egypt's de facto monopoly of the top post in the Arab League. For Cairo, this would be an outright political defeat. Egypt, as some officials acknowledge, does not have an alternative candidate on which all Arab countries accept as Arab League secretary- general, little as they care about the Arab League. "It's true. Moussa remains the only Arab candidate to which all Arab countries would agree on," said an Arab official. "Even those who are very keen on the rotation of the post of the secretary-general would still want Moussa to remain for a third term just because he still enjoys widespread popularity in the Arab world," he added. By keeping Moussa in office now, Egypt would avoid a showdown over the crucial post at a time when its relations with some key Arab countries are clearly tense. Relations with Algeria are strained for political reasons that go beyond last year's feud over the qualification for the World Cup. And the symbolic handshake between President Mubarak and his Algerian counterpart on the fringe of the Africa-France summit last month did little to assuage the deep political sensitivities between the two leading North African states. Relations with Syria are tense over Cairo wanting Damascus to contain its ties with Tehran and its influence over Hamas as well as Damascus hoping that Cairo be more sympathetic to Islamic resistance movements in occupied Palestine and Lebanon. And the initiative made by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to visit President Mubarak in the wake of the return of the latter from a long medical trip was not picked up by Cairo or for that matter re-instated by Damascus. Relations with Qatar are also uneasy over what Cairo perceives as a negative presentation of Egypt's regional role through the Qatari-owned and widely viewed Al-Jazeera TV channel. And it is not clear whether the hand-shake and subsequent short meeting between President Mubarak and the emir of Qatar in Libya this week would produce something beyond the courtesy of formalities. Relations with Saudi Arabia, an otherwise close ally, are a bit cool over the flexibility that Egypt believes Riyadh to be showing over the re- establishment of a heavy Syrian influence in Lebanon, as over Saudi dismay with Cairo's reluctance to accept its mediation to ease tension between Egypt and Syria. And the expected visit of the Saudi monarch to Egypt next week is perceived as too late in view of the fact that most other Arab leaders called on Mubarak to wish him well following his return late March to Egypt after the surgery that he underwent in Germany.
