BEIRUT, 20 April 2004 — The Arab summit will be held on May 22 in Tunis, nearly eight weeks after Tunisia postponed it, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said here yesterday.
Egypt had offered to host a rescheduled meeting but Tunisia insisted on its right to stage the event despite having angered Arab states by calling off the summit that had been set for March 29-30 in Tunis.
“The Arab summit will take place on May 22 in Tunis. There is no problem about it happening, the date or the place,” Moussa told journalists at Beirut airport following a tour of Arab countries.
Foreign ministers will hold a new preparatory meeting on May 8 and 9 in Cairo, added Moussa, appearing with Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid.
Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahya stunned his Arab counterparts at a preparatory meeting on the eve of the summit that it was postponed indefinitely because they had rejected Tunisian proposals for democratic reform in the Arab world.
Several Arab foreign ministers said however that they had ironed out differences not only on reform but also on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ahead of the summit.
