Analysis: Arab summit in Qatar - a demonstration of weakness

The pursuit of nuclear capability by the Teheran's Ayatollahs is felt as a clear and present threat and pushes Arab countries on the path to a nuclear development of their own, the cost of which they will find difficult to bear. And if that was not enough, Iran has launched an all out effort to promote Shia Islam in predominantly Sunni countries, endangering the homogeneity of the traditionally conservative society of those countries. This has led Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to lash out publicly against these attempts on a number of occasions over the past few months. Morocco went further and cut off diplomatic relations with Iran over the same issue. Sheikh Qardawi, considered as the leading religious authority of the Muslim Brothers launched a scathing attack on Iran. This did not deter Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas from carrying out Iran's bidding. Syria shows no sign of considering severing its strategic ties to that country in spite of the blandishments of the French president, and those of the newly elected American president. Hizbullah refuses to lay down its weapons and threatens Lebanon's stability. Hamas has dealt a mortal blow to the Palestinian cause since its brutal takeover of Gaza, and blocks the establishment of a united Palestinian front to negotiate with Israel while unsettling Egypt.  As for Iran, it is still holding the three islands in the Persian Gulf it wrested away from the United Emirates in 1971 and is reinforcing its grasp by building there and reinforcing its military presence. A high ranking Iranian official stated recently that Bahrain is an Iranian province, provoking such an uproar that President Mubarak made an unscheduled visit to affirm his support to "Arab Bahrain." The Egyptian president had vainly made an all-out effort in the weeks preceding the summit, with the help of Saudi Arabia, to put together a common political agenda for the members of the Arab league. A meeting in Riyadh two weeks ago between the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bashar Assad led nowhere, since the Syrian president was adamant in his refusal to mute his links with Teheran. The host of the Doha summit, the Emir of Qatar, who has been moving increasingly closer to Teheran, defended Iran's position; Al Jazeera, which he owns, kept on attacking Egypt and supporting Hamas. Speaking in the name of Mubarak who boycotted the summit, the head of the Egyptian delegation, Mofid Shihab, said that one cannot escape reality - the Iranian threat - and that one should not let non-Arab elements (Iran) interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries to promote dissension. With reference to Al Jazeera he emphasized that Arab media should be more responsible, check facts and refrain from exacerbating differences of opinion between Arab states. But to no avail. The final communiqué issued a tepid call to Iran to reach a solution to the problem of the three islands of the Emirates through negotiation or to turn to the International Court of Justice. There were no operational decisions. Once again, Arab leaders demonstrated their unwillingness to confront the real issues; once again it appears that they much prefer let the United States - and Israel - do the work for them. On one issue the summit had come together: the international warrant of arrest issued by the attorney-general of the International Criminal Court against the President of Sudan, accused of genocide in Darfur and war crimes. The final communiqué expresses the solidarity of all participants with Omar Al Bashir and calls for the cancellation of the arrest warrant, stating that the court's decision was a grave violation of the sovereignty of Sudan. This is a most unwelcome development. The Arab League should have prevented Bashir from coming to Doha and if he did come, should have insisted on him being arrested, even though Qatar is not a signatory of the treaty which brought about the constitution of the ICC (Only three of the League's members are signatories - Jordan, Djibouti and the Comoros islands). In fact the Foreign Ministers of the Arab League who prepared the summit encouraged the Sudanese president through their draft communiqué submitted to the leaders which emphasized Arab solidarity with him. In the name of that same solidarity, participants at the summit blithely ignored the gravity of the charges and openly defied the international community and its courts. Genocide perpetrated by a fellow Arab leader is apparently of no consequence. Sad to say, the secretary general of the United Nations saw nothing wrong in attending the summit together with the Sudanese leader and listened blank faced at Bashir's tirades against the UN. His lack of reaction dealt a grave blow to the ICC.  The conflict with Israel was very much on the agenda, as usual. The Syrian president, speaking first since he had been president of the previous summit, heaped coals on a country accused of not wanting peace and affirmed his support of armed resistance against Israel. Sudan's Bashir accused Israel with a straight face of arming the rebels in Darfur. The final communiqué called for the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital, and for "a just and agreed solution to the Palestinian refugees, refusing all forms of their settling" in Arab countries where they have been living in camps the last 60 years - a formula of the right of return to Western ears.