The emergency Arab Summit that was supposed to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh last week has been postponed "indefinitely". Reem Nafie reports When the emergency Arab Summit scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh on 3 August was postponed following the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, the general consensus was that it would be rescheduled for just a few days later. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, for one, optimistically promised that consultations were underway to set a new date, sometime in the coming few days. Now that over a week has come and gone, with no date announced, speculation has become rife about whether or not it will ever take place. Yesterday, Moussa himself said the summit was not due to be held any time soon, although Egypt was conducting intense consultations with Arab capitals about what date might be convenient for Arab leaders. "The consensus to hold the summit is still there - it is a matter of timing," Moussa said. The idea of a Sharm El-Sheikh emergency summit was originally suggested by Egypt as a means of discussing three pressing issues: Palestine; Iraq; and terrorism. Deciding to hold it in a Red Sea resort that had just suffered a horrible terror attack was meant to send a powerful message. While Moussa has denied that the summit idea is being dropped, Arab leaders seem to be experiencing difficulties in agreeing on a date. According to Arab League Assistant Secretary-General Said Kamal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria are currently consulting on the matter. Holding it next week will be tough, considering that date's proximity to the start of President Hosni Mubarak's presidential campaign on 17 August. The summit was meant to convene prior to 15 August to allow leaders to coordinate stances on the new Iraqi constitution and the Israeli pullout from Gaza, both of which are scheduled to take place on that day. Afterwards, Kamal said, Mubarak will be too busy with his campaign for at least another 15 days. Other Arab leaders have also found the rescheduling problematic. With the death of King Fahd, Saudi Arabia is going through a sensitive shift of power, making it difficult, some believe, for newly crowned King Abdullah to attend a summit right now. According to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal, "the issue of King Abdullah's attendance depends on the summit's timing and his internal commitments." Algeria's position also remains ambiguous. Algerian President Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika, the current chairman of the summit, had earlier expressed concerns that the 3 August summit date was reached without him being adequately consulted. It was clear that he had no intention of attending a summit in Egypt any time in August. Moreover, with the coup d'état in Mauritania, most North African leaders have expressed reluctance to leave their capitals to attend the summit. "This means that the level of representation would have been unimpressive. This is not what we are looking for at this crucial decision- making moment," commented an Egyptian presidential source. Prominent journalist Makram Mohamed Ahmed, writing in last Saturday's Akhbar Al-Youm, called on Arab leaders "to be strong, and unite to face the continuing deterioration of the Arab world; either that, or do nothing, thus placing your destinies in the hands of others to do with what they wish." Ahmed said the summit must be held, to tackle "the tough questions" and situations facing the region, many of which have been escalating over the past few months. According to Cairo University political science professor Ahmed Youssef, the summit idea was mired in problems even before King Fahd's death. Algeria and Libya had both expressed their reservations about attending, said Youssef, who also discounted the need for an "emergency" summit in the first place, arguing that nothing new as such had really taken place to warrant one. Youssef, nonetheless, discounted the idea that a regular Arab League ministerial level meeting scheduled for the first week of September could serve as an alternative, since "the sensitivity of issues discussed on a ministerial level are not like those discussed on the summit level." In the statements he made yesterday, Moussa indicated that the September ministerial meeting could prelude the Arab summit.
