MANAMA, 18 May 2004 — The rescheduled Arab summit in Tunis this week will not be attended by most heads of state. Until yesterday, only the Algerian president has confirmed his participation.
In Manama, the palace announced that King Hamad ibn Isa Al-Khalifa would not attend. The official Bahrain News Agency said Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman Al-Khalifa would take his place.
The Bahraini leader, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the summit for this year, is supposed to hand over the title to host Tunisia.
An earlier summit was called off by Tunisia at the 11th hour on the grounds that Arab states could not reach agreement on proposals for democratic reform.
The report of King Hamad’s plan to shun the rescheduled summit comes a day after Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Kurbi said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh would not go to Tunis and that he expected to represent Yemen himself.
Kurbi told AFP Saleh would stay at home to attend celebrations marking the 14th anniversary of the merger of the former North and South Yemen.
Kuwait announced on May 9 that its Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah would head the country’s delegation to Tunis. He will represent Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
United Arab Emirates President Zayed ibn Sultan Al-Nahayan went to London Friday on a private visit.
The UAE has not announced who will be representing the country at the summit. The governor of Fujairah, one of the seven emirates that makes up the UAE federation, was to represent the country at the postponed March summit.
Oman and Qatar have also not yet announced who will lead their delegations to the Tunis gathering.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told reporters in the Jordanian Dead Sea resort of Shuneh yesterday that the weekend summit would discuss a working paper on Arab reform as well as proposals to revamp the charter of the 22-member bloc.
Suggestions to establish an Arab investment bank, a joint Parliament and an Arab court of justice will be discussed, Moussa said. “There is a clear movement toward reform in the Arab countries,” he told reporters. He said a clear position would crystallize on reforms, which he said were crucial to meeting growing demands by the Arab people.
Moussa said reform was coming, but not because of pressure from the United States. The road to betterment in the Middle East was most likely to emerge from constructive reform strategies backed by adequate financial assistance.
It was important for Arab leaders at the summit to take a strong position against Israeli policy of Palestinian land seizure, he said. “There has to be an Arab opinion that tells Israel this does not work and would never be accepted,” he said. “The situation will never improve unless Israel changes its negative policy and starts dealing with peace.”
