Leaders of 22 Arab countries flock to Beirut Tuesday for the 14th Arab summit, which is convened on Wednesday, when the Arab nations face crossroads in the stalled Mideast peace process and amid bloody and yet rising tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Peace or war with Israel? This is a question, and the Arab answer is peace.
The Arab leaders convene the summit when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drags on into its 18th months and the two sides are still stuck in the circle of violence, which has left over 1,500 dead, mostly Palestinians.
Mideast peace process is on the verge of collapse
The Mideast peace process is on the verge of collapse, what is on the stake is not only the process itself, but also the fate of the Palestinians, the Arab world as a whole and the political map and the future of the region.
Beirut quickly becomes the focus of attention from the world community as the Arab leaders debate their strategic choice for peace, and what is the best way, as Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa put it, to force Israel to create a favorable ambience to bring the derailed peace process back on track.
Topping the summit agenda is a new peace initiative floated by Saudi Arabia. It calls on Israel to withdraw its troops from all Arab lands it captured since the 1967 Mideast war in exchange for Arab recognition and normalization of ties with it.
The plan is widely endorsed by Arab countries during consultations ahead of the summit, and again, it is apparently based on the famous "land for peace formula" inaugurated since the 1991 Madrid Mideast peace conference. The formula has ever since functioned as a corner stone for the peace process.
Is the Saudi plan bound for a success, or doomed for a failure, as a repetition of many never-implemented Mideast peace initiatives or resolutions? The ball is now in Israel's half of court. Most analysts believe the Arab leaders will accept or adopt the Saudi plan as a unified Arab stand, though they might disagree with its wording.
Iraqi-Kuwaiti issue
Another dilemma facing the Arab leaders is how to reconcile ties between arch Arab rivals of Iraq and Kuwait. The issue remains the largest stumbling block to achieving further Arab unity and solidarity since the 1990 Gulf crisis, triggered by Iraq's invasion of the Gulf emirate.
Baghdad still refuses to apologize officially for the invasion as demanded by Kuwait, and the two countries sharply disagree over the issue of prisoners of war (POWs), with Kuwait claiming hundreds of POWs still in Iraqi custody, while Iraq insisting it has freed all kuwaitis captured during the war.
The Iraqi-Kuwaiti ties topped the agenda of the 13th Arab summit in Amman, Jordan, one year ago, when the Arab leaders agreed to promote the reconciliation between the two countries, but no substantial progress has been made yet.
Iraq, represented by its No. 2 Izzat Ibrahim, will appeal to the summit to adopt a unified stand to call for lifting international sanctions, which it said have killed over 1.5 million citizens due to malnutrition and a lack of medicine.
The Iraqi issue is sure to top the summit again in Beirut, and this time, the question is more complicated: a US-led military strike on the country looks imminent as it still rejects the return of UN inspectors to check alleged weapons of mass destruction, a key demand by Washington.
All Arab leaders have publicly voiced their opposition to military actions against Iraq, but US Vice President Dick Cheney said after a recent Mideast trip that all the countries he had visited feared possibility of Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction.
Pan Arab economic cooperation will be another issue of interest for the Beirut summit. The Arab leaders are to compare notes on how to meet the challenge of economic globalization. The summit is expected to promote the establishment of a Pan-Arab free trade zone in the near future.
( March 27, 2002)
