TUNIS, 29 March 2004 — Egypt offered yesterday to host an Arab summit after Tunisia stunned the Arab world with a unilateral decision to scrap the meeting on its soil, citing the reluctance of some countries to embrace democratic reform.
Delegates to the Tunis summit, which would have opened today, disputed the Tunisian explanation, saying Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was unhappy that some Arab leaders did not plan to attend.
Egypt expressed “astonishment and regret” at the Tunisian decision. The summit had been expected to talk about reform, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Egypt welcomes holding a summit conference in the country of the (Arab League) headquarters at the earliest time that can be agreed,” said an Egyptian presidency statement. The headquarters of the 22-member Arab League is in Cairo.
Tunisia hit back at Cairo’s offer, saying a change in venue was no solution and it reserved the right to be host.
“Trying to change the place is to hide the real reasons that lie behind the decision to postpone... Tunisia stands by its right to host the summit which will look into these matters (democratic reforms),” the Tunisian Foreign Ministry said in a statement attributed to an anonymous official.
Syria said the Tunisian decision was unjustified and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Marwan Al-Muasher also cast doubt on the need for the Tunisians to back out as hosts.
“In any summit there are differences of views but that does not mean that the summit was not well on its way to a successful conclusion,” he told CNN.
The Tunisian government news agency said Tunisia had insisted that the summit explicitly endorse democracy and reject what it called “extremism, fanaticism, violence and terrorism” — and that other countries had balked at this.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by telephone. “The talks focused on bilateral relations and new developments in the region,” the official Saudi Press Agency said without elaborating.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who was confident the ministers would settle their differences on political reform and other issues, said Tunisia’s decision “will have dangerous consequences for joint Arab action”.
He welcomed the Egyptian offer to host a rescheduled summit.
Several thousand students demonstrated at universities across Egypt over the summit flop, accusing leaders of dishonoring Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was assassinated by Israel last Monday.
In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official welcomed the collapse as “a positive sign which shows that the Arab world is changing and that hostility to Israel is no longer a sufficient common denominator.”
