The two-day Arab summit of "accord and agreement" opening here today became a summit of discord and disagreement as soon as foreign ministers, meeting before the main event, began discussing the sensitive agenda item entitled "the situation between Iraq and Kuwait".
This issue has divided Arabs since Iraq occupied the emirate in August, 1990, and prevented them from calling routine annual meetings since the Baghdad summit in May of that year.
The confrontation between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, on the one hand, and the rest of the 20 members of Arab League, on the other, was sharp and bitter, with the Saudis adopting an even tougher position that the Kuwaitis. Indeed, Riyadh made it clear it would take a hard line by dispatching its Defence Minister, Prince Sultan ibn AbdelAziz, who played a pivotal role in assembling the US-led military coalition against Iraq, instead of the more conciliatory Crown Prince Abdullah, the effective ruler of the kingdom. The issue at dispute was Arab rehabilitation of Iraq.
Kuwait, backed by Saudi Arabia, is prepared to agree to the lifting of the UN sanctions regime and to accept Iraq's return to the Arab fold if Baghdad apologises for its invasion, agrees to respect the sovereignty of the emirate and repatriates Kuwaiti prisoners of war.
Egypt, Syria and Jordan, the sponsors of Iraq's return, have called for the total lifting of sanctions, an end to the "no-fly" zones imposed by the US and UK over most of Iraq and the restoration of civilian air links with Baghdad.
Yesterday, the foreign ministers conjured up a four-point formula which they hoped would be accepted by both sides. This would require Iraq and Kuwait to respect "regional security" and each other's sovereignty. The summit would call for the lifting of commercial sanctions against Baghdad, an early resolution of the prisoner issue and the resumption of air traffic to Iraq. While Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have, reportedly, agreed to this wording, Iraq reserved its position. This disputation upstaged the intended main item on the agenda, the state of affairs in the Palestinian territories.
The summit is expected to "strongly condemn" Israel for its handling of the Palestinian rising, the Intifada, and approve the allocation of $40 million a month over the next six months for assistance to the cash-strapped Palestine Authority so it can pay its 130,000 employees.
The Arab rulers are also due to ask the UN Security Council to send observers to the West Bank and Gaza. The Arabs will also threaten to cut ties with any state which recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital or moves its embassy to the holy city.
Syria is pressing the summit to reactivate the Arab economic boycott of Israel and foreign firms which do business with Israel. However, any decision to proceed would be non-binding because Egypt and Jordan could be penalised if they fail to respect the economic provisions of their peace treaties with the Jewish state. Israel has already characterised the withdrawal of the ambassadors of these two countries since last October as a breach of the treaties with Amman and Cairo.
Since the UN is involved in both the Iraq and Palestine issues, the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, is attending, the first head of the world organisation to do so.
While it is clear that the process of reconciliation between Iraq and Kuwait is unlikely to be started at this summit, the meeting on the sideline between the Syrian President, Dr Bashar alAssad, and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, could begin the process of mending a longstanding rift in relations. Dr As'ad Abdel Rahman, a member of the Palestine Central Council who has been trying to bring the two men together, told The Irish Times that the meeting was "substantive" and would lead to the restoration of co-operation and co-ordination.
