CAIRO, 25 May 2004 — Egypt has turned down a US invitation to attend the G-8 summit of leading industrialized nations next month, indicating its mistrust of a US plan to widen democracy in the Middle East that is to be discussed there.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said yesterday in a television interview that President Hosni Mubarak would not be able to attend the G-8 summit in the southern US state of Georgia because of other commitments.
He added that Tunisia had also declined to take part in the summit, which will hear details of US President George W. Bush’s “Greater Middle East Initiative.”
Delegates at the just-concluded Arab summit in Tunis said Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen and Jordan had also been invited to the G-8 meeting on June 10.
Mubarak’s decision followed the Tunis summit’s refusal to consider his idea for a top-level Arab body to coordinate and monitor reforms in the Arab world.
The United States has been emphasizing the need for democratic and economic reforms in the Arab world. But Arab states insist that such reforms should not be imposed from outside. The Tunis summit pledged reform but gave full latitude to Arab countries on how and when to implement it.
In his interview with Egyptian television from Tunis, Maher said that those Arab countries that attend the G-8 summit will have to defend the 13-point reform package approved at the weekend.
In a separate development, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said yesterday he wanted Libya to remain in the 22-member organization.
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi walked out of an Arab League summit on Saturday in protest at the meeting’s agenda which he said did not correspond to the agenda of ordinary Arabs. “Amr Moussa said he hoped that Libya would not pull out of the Arab League...He confirmed that Libya was an important member of the Arab League,” Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported.
