“The indefinite postponement of the summit would have dangerous consequences,” Mussa

CAIRO , March 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The stunning postponement of the Arab summit by host Tunisia could have a ripple effect on the Arab unity and play into the hands of Israel , which described the unprecedented move as a “positive sign”, senior Arab officials agreed Sunday, March 28.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa warned that the indefinite postponement of the summit would have “dangerous consequences” in the days to come.

Mussa said in a statement carried by the Egyptian news agency MENA that all Arab countries shared the responsibility for the unprecedented postponement ordered by Tunisian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali, and not just Tunisia .

Tunisia dropped a bombshell late Saturday, March 27, by abruptly calling off the Arab summit it was to host Monday, March 29.

The decision to call off the summit during its final preparations - a step never before taken in the Arab League's 57-year history – “will have dangerous consequences for joint Arab action”, Mussa said.

“The situation is serious and immediate action must be taken,” he added.

Mussa said Egypt could take the lead, and that ben Ali and other Arab heads of state could “play a role alongside Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in facing up to the dangers”.

Egypt has expressed “surprise and regret” for the Tunisia decision, saying it stands ready to host the summit at the earliest possible time that can be agreed on.

Positive Sign    

“The summit's cancellation was a second death blow for Sheikh Yassin,” Berri

Israel , for its part, breathed a sigh of relief at the postponement, hailing it as a “positive sign” that the Arab world was in “the throes of change".

“It is a positive sign which shows that the Arab world is changing and that hostility to Israel is no longer a sufficient common denominator,” a senior Israeli official told AFP, speaking on condition he not be named.

“Arab union has always favored extremists,” he claimed, linking the postponement to “the crisis in the Arab world following the U.S. intervention in Iraq ”.

On the other hand, Lebanon said the Tunisian decision gave a “way out of the crisis” and mounted to a “second death blow for (Hamas spiritual leader sheikh Ahmad) Yassin”, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The summit's cancellation was a second death blow for Sheikh Yassin,” the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, said.

Yassin, an elderly wheelchair-bound leader, was killed on March 23 in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza City as he left a mosque, prompting his group to declare all-out war on Israel and sparking anger across the region.

Lebanon had joined with the Palestinians and Syria in demanding that a united Arab front against Israel over the assassination take top billing at Monday's aborted summit, over U.S. demands for political and economic reform.

Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat agreed that the postponement would merely serve to encourage Israel to increase its attacks against Palestinians.

“I am afraid that this will bring dangerous consequences since it comes after the assassination of Sheikh Yassin and the U.S. using the veto in the (U.N.) Security Council (against a draft resolution) condemning the assassination,” Erekat told AFP.

 “We are afraid that this will allow Israel to carry out even bigger or large-scale actions against the Palestinians.”

“We know the Arab divisions are not new and we should not really exaggerate this too much as the divisions have existed for a long time,” said Erekat.

He said it was essential that Arab leaders show a common front against Israel .

“The time is coming for the Arab leaders to be united so that all Arab nations can grow strong again”.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath had already arrived in Tunis to take part in the aborted summit.

Arafat himself was notable by his absence, confined to his Ramallah headquarters by the Israeli army for more than two years.

Hamas Regrets

Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Abdel Aziz Al-Rantissi said Arab leaders failed to rise to the challenge posed by Israel 's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.

“We are sorry about this decision,” Rantissi told AFP.

“We were hoping that the Arab nations would rise to the challenge but we have seen them pull back.”

“The time is coming for the Arab leaders to be united so that all Arab nations can grow strong again,” the 56-year-old resistance leader said.

The political chief of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, had called on the summit to cut all ties with “Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other enemy leader”.

‘Overdue Reform’

The stunning announcement threw the ball in the courts of individual Arab states, who must realize that “reform is overdue”, a senior member of Saudi Arabia 's Shura (Consultative) Council said.

“It was clear that the summit was having a difficult time due to differences over the restructuring of the League, internal reforms, and major regional issues, particularly the Palestinian issue,” said Hulwah.

“We must realize that the time has come for political and social reforms,” the head of the Shura's foreign affairs committee, Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Hulwah, told AFP.

“Such reforms must reconcile international changes with local traditions, enabling us to interact with the world while preserving our values,” Hulwah said.

Now that this has not happened, “the ball is back in the courts of individual Arab states ... who must take the initiative and introduce genuine reforms by developing institutions of civil society, giving women their due role and applying transparency in their media,” Hulwah said.

The 11th-hour postponement followed bickering over political reform among Arab foreign ministers.

A sure sign that the meeting was in trouble came Friday, March 26, when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz decided to stay away, delegating Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal to represent the kingdom

Saudi leaders promised to organize the first ever polls in the kingdom next October to elect half the members of new municipal councils.