The road to the Algeria summit is not strewn with roses. Dina Ezzat reports on the most controversial issues When Arab heads of state meet for their ordinary annual summit in Algeria on 22 March, they will also be celebrating the 60th anniversary of their Pan-Arab organisation. The celebrations will come at a time when Arab countries, occupied or sovereign, are confronted with serious military, political and economic challenges for which there has been hardly any serious collective Arab response. Moreover, the Arab League anniversary will be marked as Arab public opinion, intellectuals and for that matter the secretary-general of the League are raising several issues about the future of the Pan-Arab organisation in view of the lack of political Arab will needed to support it. Arab diplomats acknowledge that if it fails to deliver concrete action on reforming the Arab League, for example, the Algeria summit will be considered a failure and the potential of strengthening -- or as some would argue reviving -- the role of the organisation would have been buried. "If we fail in Algeria then I'm afraid the doors will open wide for the new Middle East or Greater Middle East plan that aim at re-arranging the regional order in favour of US and Israeli strategic interests," one Arab diplomat commented. Judging by the debates that took place in Cairo this week during the meetings of Arab foreign ministers and permanent representatives to the Arab League, success will not at all be easy to attain in Algeria. Serious differences persist among the 22 member states over the reform plans that some of them have proposed. Despite intense discussions since the previous Arab summit in Tunis eight months ago, Arab countries have for the most part failed to agree on the concepts and details of an Arab Security Council, Arab Court of Justice and an Arab parliament. Other proposed reforms that include the establishment of joint Arab economic and cultural bodies have not proven any easier to agree on. In press statements before and after meetings that began at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League last night, Arab foreign ministers spoke much about their commitment to reform. As usual, however, objections were abundant. According to one informed Arab League source, it will take a long time before agreement can even be reached on two or three of the 12 proposed reform ideas. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa said an Arab parliament appeared to be receiving adequate support from Arab countries but did not offer an equally reassuring account on any of the other proposed reforms. The most alarming problem, some Arab diplomats argue, is that the opposition is often against reform measures for purely retaliatory reasons. "For example, every time a Saudi delegate expresses support for an idea, it is bound to be rejected by Qatar. This might have nothing to do with the nature of the idea discussed but everything to do with Saudi-Qatari confrontation within the Gulf Cooperation Council," commented one source. At the same time, Arab countries are still far too hesitant to commit money to go along with words. "Without adequate financial resources the reform process of the Arab League will be a very tough proposition," Moussa said. The secretariat of the Arab League is suffering acute financial problems due to the inability of some of its member states to pay their annual dues and the reluctance of other members to be forthcoming with their contributions. It was only this week that Kuwait, a major contributor, fulfilled its commitments to the 2004 budget. Libya, yet another major contributor, has still to honour its financial obligations. The one debate that was settled during this week's meetings was the right of Egypt to maintain its de-facto monopoly of the seat of the Arab League secretary- general. Late last week, Algerian Foreign Minister Abdel-Aziz Belkhadem said the Algeria summit will make a point of calling for the seat to be rotated. "The Arab League is not a department affiliated to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry," Belkhadem said last week. This week in Cairo, Belkhadem had changed his tune completely. "I was misquoted," he said. "The issue of rotation is part of a comprehensive reform plan that Algeria had proposed for the Arab League. It is neither crucial nor mandatory as far as Algeria is concerned," he added. But as informed sources suggest, even if the debate has been contained in the wake of a meeting between Algerian President Abdul-Aziz Boutaflika and Moussa in Kenya earlier in the week on the sidelines of the signing of the Sudan peace deal, Algerian-Egyptian sensitivities persist. As one senior Arab diplomat said, "with so many sensitivities it is hard to expect the Arab summit to be a success." Additional reporting Magda El-Ghitani
