“We, the leaders of the Arab countries gathered in Tunisia... express our rejection and condemnation of the United States' decision to recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit said as the two-day 30th Arab Summit in Tunisia concluded Monday. The week before, US President Donald Trump made an unexpected move, signing a proclamation that recognises the Golan Heights as part of Israel. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in 1967, and annexed it in 1981. Arab leaders present at the Tunisia summit said they will seek an International Court of Justice ruling annulling the US decision on the Golan that is in violation of international law and UN resolutions. Absent from the Arab Summit were Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Algeria's Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika against the background of large-scale protests in their respective countries calling for their ouster. Also missing from the summit was Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, over disputes revolving around freezing Damascus's membership in the Arab League for the past nine years after the state's violent response to Syrian demonstrations in 2011. The leaders of Somalia, Comoro Islands, Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco also gave the summit a miss. Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, meanwhile, left the summit after the opening session and during Abul-Gheit's speech. Official responses as to why he abruptly exited the hall, even before delivering his own speech, were provided neither by Doha nor by host Tunis. It is possible that, as the international media inferred, Tamim left the summit as Abul-Gheit was blasting Turkish and Iranian “interference” in the affairs of Arab countries that led to the worsening of regional crises. Egyptian diplomatic sources opined that the Qatari emir felt the Arab League secretary-general's words were referring to him, since Qatar “hides directly behind Iran and Turkey”. But this explanation seems unlikely the cause of Tamim's abrupt exit, because Arab League secretary-generals rarely offend member states. Moreover, Abul-Gheit's speech was expected by all attendees, including the Qatari leadership. That Tamim is isolated by Arab leaders is not good enough reason for leaving the summit. He is not friends with the majority of Arab leaders, but he is also not entrenched in disputes except with the Arab Quartet, comprising Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain. Other diplomatic sources, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the Qatari emir was certain the UAE and Bahraini leaders would not show up in Tunisia. Tamim had also lent his ear to rumours that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi might not attend the summit. Qatar's emir wanted the Saudi king to attend the summit alone, without the other Arab Quartet leaders. Al-Sisi's “surprise” appearance at the summit may have led Tamim to leave the summit in a show of protest, or to ruin the summit. The aforementioned reasons may be logical in part, but they are supported by no strong evidence. After Tamim's exit, the summit resumed its “normal” activities, with the Palestinian cause and its affiliated subjects of the Golan Heights and Lebanon topping the agenda. The Palestinian cause also featured high on the meeting of Arab leaders last year in Saudi Arabia's Dammam. It was more heated at Tunis, however, coming on the heels of Trump's “decision to recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan”. The US had served an introduction to Trump's decision in its State Department annual report on human rights practices for 2018, by removing the traditional description of the Syrian Golan as being occupied, writing instead, “Israeli-controlled Golan Heights”. At the time, the US State Department justified the wording by saying the report was discussing human rights, not the legal position of the Golan. Trump's announcement came a few days later, very similar to his decision recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a move condemned by the majority of world states in the UN General Assembly. East Jerusalem (regarded by Palestinians as their future capital), the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula were occupied during the 1967 War. Sinai was returned to Egypt following the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978. In 1981, the Israeli Knesset annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, resulting in UN resolutions condemning and rejecting Israel's move. The Arab Summit in Tunisia also discussed granting $100 million in monthly aid to support the Palestinian economy. Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas complained at the summit of worsening financial conditions as a result of Israel's withholding of tax funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinians. The summit agenda included discussions of the Syrian crisis and developments in Libya and Yemen, as well as Iran's occupation of the UAE's Abu Moussa and Greater and Lesser Tunb islands in the Arabian Gulf. In their final communique, Arab states denounced Turkish violations of Iraq's sovereignty and called for supporting peace and development in Sudan, Somalia and the Comoros Islands. The attendees in Tunis suggested holding the Arab Summit and the Arab Economic Summit simultaneously in the future, and the formation of an Arab strategy concerning human rights, though its outlines are not yet clear. Despite the absence of eight Arab leaders from the 30th round of the Arab Summit, Arab leaders gathered put on a show of solidarity and unity. From the looks of it, Arab leaders have grown weary of Trump's policies regarding the Palestinian cause and his so-called “Deal of the Century”. Implicit and explicit rejection until its downfall seems its fate.
