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The opening session of the meeting of Arab top diplomats (AFP)
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CAIRO,
March 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Arab foreign ministers
kicked off Monday, March 1, their four-day meeting at the Arab League,
though chief delegates to the pan-Arab body have failed Sunday,
February 29, to reach a common ground on the high-on-the-agenda U.S.
“Greater Middle East” initiative.
“Due
to some differences among Arab states, Arab League’s permanent
representatives failed to formulate a draft resolution to be submitted
to the foreign ministers Monday on reactions towards the U.S. greater
Middle East,” Reuters News Agency quoted one delegate, who refused
to be named, as saying.
“Some
Arab states go for an open dialogue with the West on the initiative
instead of rebuffing it completely and publicly,” he added.
Arab
League sources named the states as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
“Other
states like Lebanon, Syria and Yemen demand the League to reject any
western proposals aiming at interfering in the region,” the same
sources added.
The
sources said that another opinion, adopted by Bahrain and Qatar,
prefers remaining silent until the current initiatives are
crystallized, then having intensive contacts with the architects of
the initiative.
The
initiative’s architects claim the project aims to encourage
democratic reform and economic opening in the Arab world and other
Muslim countries with an eye toward abating the frustration and
poverty on which international terrorism thrives.
Those
accepting the reforms will receive support and preferential treatment
from Washington and its main western allies, according to the plan,
which the United States has up until now unveiled only its broad
lines.
‘Pre-conceived
Recipes’
On
Monday’s meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher submitted a
proposal to his Arab counterparts, rejecting “pre-conceived
recipes” imposed from outside.
The
proposal urged Arab countries to proclaim “their determination to
pursue the process of reform and modernization,” on condition that
such reforms respect the traditions and “specific characters” of
the individual countries, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
It
states that Arab countries are ready “to cooperate with friendly
countries which are ready to deal with the Arab initiative on the
basis of complete equality and not to try to impose pre-conceived
recipes”.
The
draft stresses that “in order to create a climate favorable to the
success of the reform process ... it is necessary to ... settle the
Palestinian question by ending the Israeli occupation and establishing
an independent Palestinian state,” the document said in a veiled
reference to the U.S. reform initiative.
League
secretary general Amr Moussa said earlier that the meeting would focus
on ways for “radical modernization of the League through reform and
restructuring.”
Moussa
has given the ministers proposals based on various ideas made by seven
Arab countries. These include creating an Arab parliament, an Arab
security council, court of justice, an investment and development bank
and a high council of culture.
There
is also a proposal to change the League's voting mechanism to end the
current system which demands a unanimous vote.
The
members will also set stage for the upcoming Arab summit in Tunis.
Differences
between its members, displayed openly at its last summit in March 2003
just before U.S.-led the war against Iraq, have largely paralyzed its
various bodies.
Diplomatic
Offensive
The
Arab gatherings came as the United States is launching a broad
diplomatic offensive to explain its much-criticized reform plans for
the Middle East.
Marc
Grossman, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, left on
Sunday for a week-long tour of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain to
advance the project.
Grossman,
number three in the State Department, will also be going to Turkey,
Brussels, seat of the European Union, and NATO, which Washington wants
as partners in its Middle East plans.
“What
we want to do is look at these programs that we have, see what they
cover in terms of supporting reform, supporting change in the Middle
East,” said State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher.
President
George W. Bush wants to make the Middle East initiative a center piece
of the G8 summit of industrialized nations at Sea Island, Georgia, in
the southeastern United States in June 2004.
However,
numerous Arab countries -- including close U.S. allies Egypt and Saudi
Arabia -- are already opposing any western formula to be imposed on
them.
Egypt
and Saudi Arabia, whose support Washington sees as requisite to the
success of its Middle East initiative, rebuffed
the U.S. recipe.
To
the contrary, Turkish journalists said that the U.S. administration
gave Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan the
green light during his visit to Washington in January 2004
to promote the initiative in view of Turkey's pivotal role in the plan
and the region.
Earlier
this month, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said his
administration was considering a major initiative aimed at encouraging
democratic reforms in the greater Middle East and looking for ways to
"institutionalize" such a project.
U.S.
Vice President Dick Cheney spoke of the same initiative in January in
the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
“Our
forward strategy for freedom commits us to support those who work and
sacrifice for reform across
the greater Middle East ,” he said.
