A reporter called me late last week to ask for my take on the Arab League Summit at Sirt, Libya. I said that it had a strong chance of being even more meaningless than the usual Arab League Summit, given Qadhafi's tendency to grandstand as a host and the major divisions in the Arab world. Also King ‘Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Sultan Qaboos of Oman, Husni Mubarak and others weren't attending. Marc Lynch expressed similar doubts ahead of time.
Well, there was a moment when Abu Mazen almost went home in protest, and as usual the main agreement was to criticize Israel. Other than that, it looks like there weren't any headlines, but also no big blowups like Qadhafi's sparring with ‘Abdullah at Doha last year.
The Arab League has a well-known rule of unanimity for any resolution; since it has also grown to include as full members Djibouti, Somalia, and the Comoros, whose Arabness is not apparent to everyone. (Brazil, Eritrea, India and Venezuela are "Observers," but the Comoros is (are?) a full member.) So unanimity is far harder than it was when the League was smaller.
Perhaps the League is an anachronism, and more regional groupings like the Gulf Cooperation Council or the Arab Maghreb Union make more sense today, though the latter has its own internal tensions. (Could Brother Leader be a common element here?)
Anyway, neither Lynch nor I was proven wrong by a stunningly successful summit in Sirt.
Monday, March 29, 2010
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