Dina Ezzat asks what will Arabs get out of their next summit? Debate on the venue and date of the Arab summit is finally over. After a long and open phase of hesitation and after failed attempts to move the summit to the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League, Tunis, the next chair of the Arab summit (according to Arabic alphabetical order), has decided to host the Arab summit on 29 and 30 March. The Tunisian decision came less than two months before the convocation of the annually scheduled event. It was declared, in low-profile style, on Friday. It came after the Tunisian government received sufficient assurances from the Arab League and key Arab capitals that the high-level Arab gathering will not end up with the typical Arab disputes and the equally typical resolutions that make promises of political solidarity and economic unity with little, if any, plans for implementation. "The Tunisian President Zein Al-Abaddine Bin Ali is having a presidential election next autumn and irrespective of the assurances he has over his political future he naturally did not want to go to these elections with a failed Arab summit just behind him," commented one Arab source. According to this source, Bin Ali was particularly worried about a replay of scenes from the last Arab summit chaired by Bahrain only a couple of weeks before the US-British war on Iraq. This summit was marred by on-air verbal attacks between Arab leaders. "This year Iraq is already occupied and nobody is willing to openly challenge the plans of the Americans since it is very clear that opposition to Washington now comes with a very high economic and may be even military price," one Tunisian source told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Tunisian president was not only offered assurances that Arab leaders will not get into a debate over who is to blame for the war on Iraq but also he was offered equal assurances that there will be no attempt to include in the resolutions or the communiqué of the summit any strong anti-US language with regard to either Iraq or the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Sources say that the Tunisian government is very keen to promote itself as a potential best friend to the US in North Africa. Additionally, it knows that positions reached in the summit have little bearing afterwards, with Arab states often falling over themselves not to further offend the US once the safety of collective solidarity evaporates. More to the point still, the Tunisian president was in Washington for talks with his American counterpart on ways to enhance Tunisian-American relations. So the debate over anti-Americanism is unlikely to occur. Neither Iraq nor the Arab-Israeli conflict is expected to be the subject of much discussion in the next summit. It is the reform of the Arab League that will be the main focus of the two-day Arab congregation and a number of Arab foreign ministers meetings that will be started as of 29 February in the Arab League. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Qatar offered formal initiatives while some other Arab states, such as Algeria (scheduled chair of the 2005 meetings) and Bahrain, offered informal visions on the reform of the near 59-year-old Arab League. The initiatives stretch from the immediate creation of an Arab Union with unified Arab foreign and economic policies, as proposed by Yemen and Libya, to the less ambitious, but more likely, overhauling of the league (proposed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia), turning it into an effective regional organisation to which its member states owe political and financial commitment. During the past few weeks a legal team drawn from several Arab countries combined these and other ideas -- such as those floated by the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa -- into a streamlined proposal of reform that includes, among other things, the establishment of a new set of mechanisms that should make the league more functional, with its communiqués more binding. The most interesting proposed mechanisms are an Arab Parliament, an Arab Security Council, an Arab Court of Justice, an Arab Higher Council for Culture and a set of new economic bodies. "Our approach is a global one. We believe that the many political and economic developments in this region and the world in general make it absolutely necessary for us to move on. The Arab League, or let me say the secretariat of the Arab League, cannot live up to the many and increasing challenges with which the Arab world is faced unless it develops a certain degree of readiness. This is what makes reform essential," Arab League Vice Secretary-General Noureddin Hachade told the Weekly. Hachade argued that the proposed and aspired to reform, "is not only going to make the Arab League more capable of serving the interests of the Arab countries, as has been stressed by Arab peoples, but will send a clear political message to those that are currently busy fixing initiatives to reform our part of the world that we can put our own house in order. We do not need others to decide for us. We can do it ourselves". According to Hachade the "bits and pieces" approach cannot work because the needs of Arab states vary so much. While some countries will benefit from proposed economic mechanisms, other countries may be focussed on more political and conflict management-related facilities. "And in all cases if we are going to seriously seek modernity and reform then we have to do a proper job and address the different concerns not only of the governments but also of the people," Hachade argued. He added, "this is precisely the reason the reform plan includes a clear reference to the essential role of civil society as part of the modern collective Arab cooperation." The vice secretary-general said that the private sector will also have a role to play in the functions of the "New Arab League". Reform, says Hachade, is not going to be an overnight process. "It is not like by the next Arab summit in March 2005 the full plan will have been implemented. No, it is going to take a few years so the high expectations should be realistic." The question, however, is how far Arab countries are willing to go with this "global scheme for reform and modernisation". Arab diplomatic sources say that something is bound to come out of the summit but not very much. "It would be unrealistic to assume that the proposed vision of reform will be approved as forwarded by the Arab League secretary-general. I believe that a few items might be approved, some only in principle, and a few might be initiated," said one source. So far it is difficult to say which proposal is likely to get more support. The Arab Gulf countries are less sceptical about the Arab Parliament, but they are not fully convinced. "They might say yes, but stall on implementation," argued one informed source. Jordan, according to its Permanent Representative to the Arab League Hani Al-Moulqi is not particularly interested in the Arab Security Council that is slated to include but a limited number of Arab states. "We want no vetoes in the Arab world," he said this week. Moreover, a Saudi proposition to impose penalties over member states who do not honour political commitments and financial obligations is faced with rejection from several Arab countries, predominantly Saudi Arabia's neighbouring Gulf states who have the custom of withholding their annual financial contributions to the budget of the Arab League to demonstrate displeasure with a political line taken by the organisation, or its secretary-general. "Needless to say that Kuwait is a good example. Kuwait has not paid its dues for the year 2003 to punish the Arab League for the opposition demonstrated by its secretary-general to the war on, and occupation of, Iraq," said one source. He added that Libya is another example. The vice secretary-general of the Arab League is willing to take all these remarks into account but he also argues that, "Even with these concerns in mind it is important to realise that there is a general feeling among Arab states, despite a few exceptions, that gathering threats are facing Arab countries, and that the only way out is for Arab countries to come together." Finally, he added: "It seems to me that everybody knows that they need a shelter and that the Arab League is as good shelter as any."
