A record number of 17 Arab leaders, including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, attended the Kuwait economic forum which kicked off yesterday. The main absences were those of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi and Morocco's King Mohamed VI. In his speech delivered before the summit, President Mubarak said the Arab World was going through a difficult period fraught with dangers and challenges, including the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and its repercussions as well as the current split among the Arabs and its consequences. He also talked about speculations in the Arab region and countries' attempts to play a role and exercise their influence, both from inside and outside the region. The President also affirmed that the Palestinian people's suffering and cause were being traded, adding there were also attempts to split and weaken the Arab ranks. "The tragedy in Gaza has shaken the world's conscience, tested our common work as Arabs and unveiled many contradictions as well as the Arab World's fragmentation" he said. "We had to side with Gaza, realize the gravity and cruelty of the aggression and strive to stop it and contain its humanitarian repercussions away from speculations and empty slogans. "I was looking forward to working together from a single Arab perspective, putting the Palestinian people's interests and cause above the factions' interests and trying, first and foremost, to stop the aggression and the bloodshed with no one defaming anyone." President Mubarak affirmed that Egypt has been sponsoring the Palestinian Cause over the last sixty years with responsibility and honesty. He said he regretted the fact that some people were trying to divide the Arabs between moderate and resisting countries. "It is as if we had not learnt from the mistakes in the past and history's recent lessons and as if we were taking the Arab World 30 years back" he said. "Why don't we unanimously adopt an Arab initiative for fair and comprehensive peace?" he wondered. "It is regretful to allow the tragedy in Gaza to be exploited so that our Arab World might be invaded by those who trade with Palestinian blood and want to dominate this region". President Mubarak affirmed that Egypt had never been submitted to blackmails. He also thanked God for letting his country go to the Kuwait Summit after being able to strike a ceasefire agreement that might spare Palestinians' blood, pave the way for Israeli forces' withdrawal, restore calm in Gaza, open the border crossings and lift the blockade on the Strip. The president admitted that inter-Arab relations were not at their best, saying relations among brothers must be based on clarity and sincerity as well as consistency in terms of words and deeds. "In these relations, there is no room for assaults, declarations of treachery and bad conducts" he said. President Mubarak affirmed that Egypt had adopted a strong and clear stance since the first day of the aggression on Gaza although some countries were pretending to ignore some well-known facts. He warned about restricting the Palestinian Cause to Gaza, Gaza to the border crossings and the seven border crossings to the one in Rafah, adding that the Palestinian Cause was much bigger than that. Kuwait's Prince Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah stressed the importance of the Arab Initiative, saying it represented the corner stone of the Arab stance although some countries had called for freezing it. Syrian President Bashar al-Asad called on his Arab counterparts to back the Palestinian resistance explicitly and not to question its legitimacy. He also called for giving moral and political support to Gaza and confirming its right to reply to the aggression.
