Egypt Back at Summit; So Is Arab Squabbling

The leaders of the Arab world convened a summit meeting here Tuesday to officially welcome Egypt’s return to the Arab fold 10 years after it was shunned for signing a peace treaty with Israel.

President Hosni Mubarak, the first Egyptian leader to attend an Arab summit since the late Anwar Sadat signed the 1979 treaty with Israel, was warmly embraced by Morocco’s King Hassan II as he arrived at the gates of Casablanca’s opulent royal palace for the start of the two-day meeting of the 22-member Arab League.

But while Egypt’s formal return to Arab councils was held as a historic event with major consequences for the balance of power in the Arab world, it was apparent that the summit itself was doomed to repeating the spectacle of squabbling and confrontation that has become almost a ritual at meetings of this sort.

Egypt aside, the two main issues that the kings, presidents and emirs were summoned to this “emergency” meeting to discuss are the Palestinian question and the deepening conflict in Lebanon.

And it was clear, from two days of preparatory meetings by Arab League foreign ministers, that deep differences had emerged over both issues.

The summit was originally called by Morocco’s King Hassan to align Arab support behind the Middle East peace initiative launched last November by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat.

But at the preparatory talks for the summit, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh made it clear that Damascus strongly rejects Arafat’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist as well as his willingness to confine the creation of a future Palestinian state to the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, persuaded to join the meeting only at the last moment, threatened to walk out if the summit endorses these or any of the other moves toward moderation made by Arafat over the past six months.

Summit sources said that Egypt, plunging into the thick of things even before Mubarak’s arrival, integrated the PLO and Syrian viewpoints into a compromise draft resolution on the Palestinian question that will be presented to the summit heads for approval.

While the draft does not explicitly endorse all the concessions made by the PLO, Palestinian officials said it contains enough for Arafat to move ahead with a “peace offensive” aimed at winning Western support for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.

The working paper presented by the Palestinians at the preparatory meetings had sought a more specific endorsement of the PLO’s decision last November to advocate a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis.

But Egyptian and Palestinian sources said the compromise draft accepted by the foreign ministers gives only implicit approval to this formula in the form of references to U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab land and recognize the right of all countries in the region to exist within secure boundaries.

“It is not so explicit on this point, but we are satisfied with it,” PLO spokesman Ahmed Abdul-Rahman said. “It still constitutes a mandate for the PLO. It gives Arafat carte blanche to continue his political offensive.”

Syria, which had wanted the resolution to be tougher on Israel and to include the question of Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights, was expected to accept the compromise draft “with reservations,” a summit source said.

While it had no official place on the summit’s agenda, the unusually blunt criticism of Israel by Secretary of State James A. Baker III in Washington on Monday created a flurry of interest in Casablanca as the Arab leaders gathered to discuss their positions on peace moves toward the Jewish state.

Baker, addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said it is time for Israel to “lay aside, once and for all, the unrealistic vision of greater Israel” and to negotiate an accord with the Palestinians that trades land for peace.

Reacting favorably to the secretary’s remarks, a PLO spokesman said that “we appreciate what Mr. Baker said to AIPAC to help them understand that the idea of greater Israel is only a dream.”

However, the spokesman added that Baker’s challenge to the Palestinians to take “concrete steps towards accommodation with Israel” was, in the PLO’s view, odd in light of the steps that it maintains it has already taken in that regard.

“What Baker did not say is that, after 40 years of struggle, we have given up our dream in favor of a political program that represents a historic change for us,” the official said. “We have accepted the two-state solution, and we have recognized Israel and renounced terrorism. Baker should have acknowledged that too.”