BRASILIA, May 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The first South American-Arab summit opened on Tuesday, May 10, with the aim of forming a new alliance to counterweight Washington dominance and open up new trade markets.

“We have a historic opportunity to lay the foundation of a strong cooperation between South America and the Arab world,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the opening ceremony, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The great challenge is to design a new geography of international economy and trade,” said the landmark summit’s host.

Brazilian Trade Minister Luiz Furlan said he wanted to see Brazil's trade with Arab countries, which totaled 8.1 billion dollars in 2004, double to more than $15 billion in the next three years.

Summit co-chair and current Arab summit leader Algerian President Abdelaziz Buteflika also was to address the conference.

Proposed by da Silva after a visit to the Middle East in 2003, the two-day summit brings together leaders from 12 South American and 22 Arab nations.

Five Arab countries are represented by a head of state, and nine South American presidents are on hand.

The summiteers have on their plates promoting economic cooperation, unifying stances in international fora like the World Trade Organization and the United Nations as well as scaling down dependence on the US and Europe.

Mercosur - the trade bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - was to sign a framework agreement with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council on starting negotiations aimed at achieving free trade, officials said.

Arab heavyweight Saudi Arabia has also invited the summiteers to a meeting in Riyadh of oil producing and consuming countries later in the year.

“The document is a very good one and deals with all issues that are important to the two sides,” Abul Gheit said

A draft of the summit declaration, obtained by Reuters, recognizes and supports “the rights of states and peoples to resist foreign occupation”.

It also expresses concern over American sanctions on Syria.

The document underlined the need to combat terrorism “in all its forms” through international cooperation.

It further calls for holding an international conference under UN auspices to define terrorism.

The draft urges respect of “the unity, sovereignty and independence of Iraq and of not interfering in its internal affairs.”

It also calls for sweeping cooperation between the two regions on the economic front, including promoting reforms in the international financial system to better serve the needs of the developing countries.

“The document is a very good one and deals with all issues that are important to the two sides,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told the Associated Press.

US Isolation

Despite its lofty goals, the summit has been largely ignored by Arab leaders with only five taking part.

Besides co-chair Buteflika, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani and Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh are attending.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country is the most populated in the Middle East and strategically located between Africa and Asia, has delegated Abul Gheit to represent him.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, and Morocco's King Mohammed VI have both turned down the invitation to show up in the summit, according to AFP.

Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi are also shunning the summit, along with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Arab diplomatic sources in Brasilia told AFP that the Bush administration pressured several Arab countries to stay away after the host turned down a US request for observer status at the summit.

Some analysts consider the rejection of the American request as another sign of worsening relations between Washington and the countries it has traditionally viewed as its backyard, according to Reuters.

Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based think tank the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said he had never seen the US so isolated from Latin America.

“Latin America went through a withering experience of American bullying to gain support for the Iraq coalition, and now El Salvador is the only country in the region with troops left in Iraq.

“It's part of the shakedown of the repercussions of Bush administration foreign policy,” Birns said.

South American nations were overwhelmingly opposed to the US-led invasion-turned-occupation of oil-rich Iraq.

US, Israeli Concerns

The summit's draft declaration clause on the right of people to resist occupation has raised concerns from both the United States and Israel, Reuters said.

“We would be concerned about anything in a declaration that could be misinterpreted as providing justification or support for terrorism,” claimed a US official in Washington.

An Israeli diplomatic source in the Brazilian capital said Lula is “clearly more sympathetic to the Palestinian discourse than to our positions.”

The Israeli Embassy also said in a statement that “the positions and worries of Israel regarding the summit have been expressed” to Brazil and other South American governments.

Brazil said the summit would support a peaceful solution to the Middle East problem, but solutions always must consider justice for all peoples in the region.

“Obviously the positions these countries take won't please everyone,” said Vera Pedrosa, an undersecretary at Brazil's Foreign Ministry, who helped draft the declaration.

Most countries in the Americas have immigrant communities of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and other Arab origins, and their influence in local business communities and politics has grown in past decades.

Current Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca is of Palestinian descent while Argentine ex-president Carlos Menem is the son of Syrian immigrants.