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Looking
ahead
By
Hussein Hassouna
Published
March26 ,2004
As
the Arab League and its 22 member states celebrated
the 59th anniversary of the Arab regional organization
on Monday, questions were being raised throughout
the Arab world and beyond about its potential
revitalized role in dealing with regional and
world challenges. These core issues will most
certainly be debated at the forthcoming Arab League
Summit in Tunis today.
Critics
of the league have pointed to its internal divisions,
its outdated structures and mechanisms, its failure
to ensure implementation of its resolutions, its
bureaucracy and financial crises and its inability
to deal successfully with the issues of deep concern
to the Arab people. While some of that criticism
is fair and well-intentioned, it should not overlook
historic reality. Through the Arab League and
within its framework, all major Arab common policies
and initiatives have been adopted over the years,
in areas as varied as the Arab-Israeli conflict,
regional security, economic integration, human
rights and the environment.
The
variety of these issues underscores the league's
broad agenda and scope of activities. But the
major item of concern to the league has always
been the Arab-Israeli conflict, a major destabilizing
factor in the Middle East. Already, at the Beirut
Arab League Summit in 2002, the member states
earnestly attempted to change the political dynamics
of the conflict by unanimously adopting the "Arab
Peace Initiative" as a framework for a comprehensive
settlement in the region. Despite Israel's lack
of response, the coming Arab summit is expected
to reaffirm its attachment to that initiative
as complimentary to the Quartet's roadmap and
President Bush's vision of a two-state solution,
and to seek new means to reactivate it so as to
regenerate a new momentum of peace.
On
the related issue of regional security, the Arab
League continues to call for the establishment
of a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction
in the Middle East, including those possessed
by Israel, an appeal that assumes increased importance
in the aftermath of the Iraq war and Libya's new
transparency, both closing a chapter of weapon
proliferation in the region.
Other
regional crises on the league's agenda include
Iraq, whose restoration of full sovereignty and
preservation of unity are strongly supported by
the league's membership. To that end, the league
has significantly increased its involvement in
support of the Iraqi people through active contacts
with the leadership of all Iraqi factions and
by initiating major Arab collective assistance
to Iraq's reconstruction and development. The
league is also extending its full political support
to the ongoing peace efforts in Sudan and stands
by its commitment to contribute to the economic
development of southern Sudan.
Another
goal of the league is to achieve national reconciliation
in Somalia and restore peace and security in that
war-torn country. The league has further condemned
all forms of terrorism against innocent civilians,
while strongly rejecting defamation against Arab
culture and Islam, as well as the racial profiling
of Arabs and Muslims. Accelerating the creation
of an Arab free-trade zone and customs' union,
as well as improving Arab human development, are
also issues of great priority for the league.
Much
attention of the Tunis summit meeting will undeniably
be given to a set of proposals for a major restructuring
and reform of the Arab League, including inter
alia, amending the voting procedure and creating
an Arab parliament and a court of justice. The
experience of other multilateral organizations
shows that consensus-building over major reforms
is a long-term and complex process, particularly
when it involves the creation of new organs and
institutions. Therefore, we can expect the summit
at this stage to formally endorse the restructuring
and reform of the league, and provide guidelines
for the implementation of any proposal acceptable
to the majority of member states.
A
related issue of wider scope, namely the process
of Arab reform and modernization, will also be
considered by the summit, prompted by reform calls
in both the Arab and Western worlds. The prevailing
feeling among the league's membership is to acknowledge
the need to actively carry on reform, not imposed
as an outside model, but evolving from within
Arab societies in accordance with their cultural
and religious heritage.
And
for those efforts to fully succeed, there must
be a fundamental change of climate in the region,
primarily through resolution of the Arab-Israeli
conflict, the main source of the current tension.
What is certain, however, is that the coming Arab
summit can provide a collective Arab vision for
reform and modernization that would become an
inspiration to all reform-seekers in the Arab
world.
Hussein Hassouna is the ambassador of the League
of Arab States.
Copyright
© 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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