Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs, described the atmosphere of the five-way Arab summit held yesterday in Tripoli, Libya as positive. Leaders of Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Iraq, and Yemen met at a summit which Abul Gheit believes witnessed visible accord over a mechanism to improve joint Arab action. The Egyptian minister announced in a press release that the primary results of the summit have been formulated in a document including the recommendations of the five leaders on achieving joint Arab action. Those attending the next extraordinary Arab summit in October will be briefed on their final declaration. Top of the recommendations made, Abul Gheit said, was the adoption of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's propsal to transform the organization into an "Arab Union." Another suggestion was to hold two annual meetings, one as an ordinary summit and the other for consultation, held at the main headquarters. According to Abul Gheit, Mubarak believes this will entail the meeting of Arab leaders every six months to exchange visions, coordinate positions on Arab regional issues, and overcome differences. Among the topics discussed at the summit was the possibility of holding summits tackling specific fields of Arab cooperation, such as the social, economic development summit due to be held in Egypt in March 2011, and a cultural summit focusing on improving Arab culture and quality of education. Abul Gheit said that issues of maintaining the stability and security of the Arab League also featured in the discussions, as well as the possibility of establishing an Arab peacekeeping force. According to Abul Gheit, the five leaders have instructed the league's general secretariat to lay down a time schedule for implementing the recommendations and to determine the costs involved. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
