Doaa El-Bey looks at the situation just two weeks before the start of the Arab summit in Damascus The failure to elect a Lebanese president up until now, the violence in Gaza, the recent attack against the Israelis in West Jerusalem and the possible suspension of the peace talks pose challenges before the start of the two-day Arab summit in Damascus beginning 29 March at a time when some cast doubt on the reasons for holding it in the first place. Bassem Al-Teweisi shed light on the absence of any tangible developments that could guarantee the success of the summit, let alone stage it. The parliamentary session to choose a Lebanese president was postponed for the 16th time and the next few days could come up with more surprises. The absence of any development raises possibilities of postponing the summit or moving it to another Arab capital. Some commentators satirically requested that it should be convened in the Iranian capital Tehran instead of Damascus and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be invited, just as Qatar did in the last Gulf Cooperation Council meeting, to show goodwill. However, Al-Teweisi believes that the summit presents a real opportunity for Damascus to break the state of isolation imposed on it by taking the initiative and seriously trying to resolve the Lebanese and Palestinian problems. That is, it can turn itself from a state of strategic confusion to strategic manoeuvring. Such a change requires from Syria effort to repair its relationship with other Arab states rather than wait until the Arabs take the initiative to recoup their ties with Damascus. Syria, as the writer elaborated, should invest its current presidency of the Arab summit by trying to recapture its Arab role so as to put an end to its current state of isolation and consequently help it gather the largest number of cards to play with to serve its interests as well as the national interests of the Arab states. Meanwhile, Al-Teweisi warned of the consequences of the failure of the summit. "The presence of huge differences among the Arabs increases the importance of the summit. One should also be aware that the failure of the summit would mean the birth of a new regional power and not a mere political axis," he wrote in the Jordanian political daily Al-Ghad. Abdullah Iskandar regarded the recent armed attack against a religious institute in West Jerusalem as an indicator that the Arab-Israeli conflict had entered a new phase. Both Hizbullah and the Israeli media viewed the assault as an outcome of Palestinian-Lebanese resistance and financial, logistic and political support from Damascus and Tehran. As a result of the attack, the Israeli media focussed on Hizbullah's role and its impact on the region, the significance of attacking a religious-political symbol in the Zionist state, especially in West Jerusalem, and the effect of financial Iranian support of the resistance against Israel. That means, as Iskandar elaborated, that the principle of land for peace as established by the 1991 Madrid peace conference is not on offer now. Instead, an all-out confrontation inside and around Israel is the option on the ground. "In other words, the Jerusalem operation showed that many parties are working to convert the rules of the game of the Arab-Israeli conflict," Iskandar wrote in the London-based independent daily Al-Hayat . This option seems to appeal to both the Israeli government as well as the Syrian-Iranian coalition. With that in mind, it is easier to understand why Syria confirmed that the Arab summit would be held in Damascus at its appointed time. "Syria declared that the summit would be a Palestinian summit. That is, the summit would underline the new dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict: Lebanese-Palestinian and Arab-Iranian," he added. That also explains why the parties are not bothered by resolving the Lebanese conflict before the summit begins because Lebanon offers a venue for rooting the new rules of the Arab-Israeli conflict and abolishing the basic principles of the Madrid conference. Maamoun Fendi focussed on two factors that keep hot issues in the Middle East pending. The first is the absence of a diplomacy supported by a world power. Diplomacy could be successful when the negotiator possesses the trump cards that can, at once, attract and intimidate the parties concerned, like that which we see with the Irish and British negotiators. Thus, Fendi writes in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat that Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa's diplomacy will not work in Lebanon because it lacks the power behind it. Thorny issues like that of Lebanon need bilateral or quadrilateral coalitions that have the necessary influence to resolve them. "Solving the Lebanese crisis needs tough diplomacy supported by a real power. The devastating havoc in Lebanon at the end of the 1975- 1990 Civil War was not resolved by the Arab League but by the Saudis in Taif," Fendi wrote. The other factor that the writer highlights is the absence of frankness as well as confrontation among the Arab states. Today, there is Egyptian-Saudi coordination, and Syrian-Egyptian and Syrian-Saudi differences. But neither the Egyptians nor the Saudis are clearly confronting Syria. In order for the Arabs to resolve their problems, Fendi concluded that the Damascus summit should be convened at its planned venue and time. "The Damascus summit should be convened and the Arab leaders should talk to one another honestly in order to put an end to the current state of decline. If they do not openly discuss the reasons for their differences, then there is no point talking about unrealistic Arab coordination. In that sense, nobody should blame any Arab state that unilaterally works for its own narrow interests," Fendi added. The United Arab Emirates independent political daily Akhbar Al-Arab criticised the Israeli decision to build 800 new settlement units near Jerusalem as Israeli indifference to all the efforts exerted to restart negotiations. The move, taken shortly after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Israel, shows that Rice probably gave Israel the green light. More importantly, it shows that Israel and the West do not understand the Arab stand. Thus, both the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League need to adopt a decisive and firm position not only to denounce Israeli settlement policies but to freeze all contact with Israel until it stops all settlement projects. "The expected Arab stand in the Damascus summit is to suspend the Arab initiative and cancel any sort of participation with mediators unless they express a similar stand to that of the Arabs," the editorial read.
