SYRIA: Arab League Summit’s bitter aftertaste
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The Arab League Summit ended over the weekend in the Syrian capital of Damascus with no breakthroughs, as expected, on the various political crises of the region.
The main news that came out of this annual meeting of Arab leaders was the absence of several heads of state. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, among other countries, sent low-ranking officials to the conference because, in their eyes, Damascus was blocking the selection of a president in Lebanon, which sent no one to the conference.
Saudi newspapers expressed the Kingdom’s irritation with the Syrian policy in the region by criticizing the summit in derisive terms. The Saudi Gazette, an English-language newspaper accused Syria of having no intention to grapple with Arab issues from the Palestinian Israeli conflict to the quagmire in Iraq:
It doesn’t get much more surreal than that… Although Syria took it upon itself to host the summit and help resolve the Lebanese issue, it was clear from the get-go that it wasn’t about to budge from its position… None of us expected much of this year’s Arab summit, but all of us were utterly disappointed.
The Saudi-owned English-language Asharq Al Awsat published a satirical editorial about the Arab Summit in Damascus, comparing it to a ‘free comedy show.” The paper’s editor, Tariq Alhomayed, lambasted Syrian President Bashar Assad’s speech at the summit claiming it was full of fabrications:
So after witnessing this spectacle of a summit and listening to all the fabrications about Lebanese and Arab issues as well the insinuations and insults hurled against the people of the Gulf region, we have a final word to say to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal … your country was right when it decided not to attend, for we will not bare false witness especially after all we’ve heard at this spectacle of a summit.
Lebanon’s pro-Western political faction also rebuked the Syrians after the summit. Druze political leader Walid Jumblat is a former warlord who is now an occasional guest of the White House and one of the most vehement anti-Syrian voices in Lebanon. He called for the toppling of the regime in Syria following the summit. In an editorial in the weekly publication of his political party, he said the summit lacked political vision:
This dim summit ... did not achieve any progress in tackling major controversial topics, topped by the Palestinian cause, Iraq and Lebanon… The Syrian regime is active in practicing sabotage and widening rifts in all three arenas.
— Raed Rafei in Beirut