Countdown to Beirut

Dina Ezzat reports on preparations for, and the likely agenda of, next week's Arab League summit in Beirut
Tomorrow Beirut International Airport will be bustling with Arab officials participating in the second ordinary Arab League summit, due to open on Wednesday. The two-day summit will be preceded by preparatory meetings to finalise the agenda and draft resolutions. The Beirut Declaration, expressing the summit's stance on all pressing political and economic issues, should also be ready for approval by the Arab heads of state who are expected to converge on the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.
Among those not attending, owing to ill-health, are King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Sabah, the emir of Kuwait and Sheikh Zayid, president of the United Arab Emirates. Also absent, for obvious security concerns, will be the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. The latter has received death threats from Lebanese Shi'ite organisations for his involvement in the mysterious disappearance in Libya in 1978 of the Lebanese Shi'ite cleric Imam Moussa Al-Sadr.
It is the participation of the Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, though, that weighs most heavily on the preparations for the meeting. Israel has given assurances to several Arab capitals that Arafat will be allowed to attend. On Tuesday, however, during a joint press conference with the visiting US vice-president, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatened not to allow Arafat back from Beirut if he resorted to "incitement against Israel" at the summit.
"Some Arab leaders have been advising Arafat not to go. They tell him his participation is not as vital as his return to the West Bank afterwards. But Arafat is inclined to go," said an informed Arab diplomatic source.
The Palestinian question is bound to top the summit agenda. The Saudi peace initiative -- "total Israeli withdrawal from all land occupied in 1967 including East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Shebaa farms in return for a comprehensive Arab- Israeli peace that includes the establishment of normal relations" -- will be endorsed by the summit after its legal and political details have been refined during several working sessions over the past few weeks. The sessions brought together Palestinian representatives, the Arab League secretary-general and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
"This initiative is meant to reaffirm the determined Arab refusal to succumb to the will of some regional and international diplomacies that have been trying to impose their version of peace. It says that for us to agree to a comprehensive peace we have to have all our land back ," said Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. "Paralleling the resistance to Israeli occupation as represented by the Intifada, the Saudi initiative, like other Arab visions for peace including that of Libyan leader Gaddafi, acts as a counter to those that attempt to impose Israel's views on the Arab world," Moussa said.
While the language adopted in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict is unlikely to be strong -- promises to this effect have been given to US officials during their recent visits to Arab capitals -- an escalation of Israeli aggression might change this.
"You have to bear in mind that the Arab summit comes in the wake of a UN Security Council resolution that acknowledged, for the first time at such a level, the right of the Palestinians to their own state side by side with Israel," commented one official.
While the resolutions adopted by the summit, as well as its final declaration, will give clear support for the Saudi initiative it remains unclear how far it will go in voicing support for the right of the Palestinians to resist military occupation. The final declaration, though, is certain to include a call for ending Israeli military occupation, coupled with a pledge of coordinated efforts to "pursue a fair and balanced peace that allows for the return of all Arab rights including the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," the official said.
Such clarity is not, however, expected on another contentious issue -- relations between Iraq and Kuwait. A resolution on this is unlikely in the absence of any consensus on the best way to resolve the conflict.
Moussa has succeeded in securing the resumption of positive and constructive talks between Baghdad and the UN on a number of issues, including the potential return of arms inspectors to Iraq, moves that are likely to be endorsed by the summit.
"I intend to proceed with this effort that I undertook in view of extensive consultations [with all the concerned parties] and that is producing clear results," Moussa told reporters on Monday.
The Arab summit is also expected to give a vote of support for Moussa's efforts to reform the League and examine his plans to upgrade Arab socio-economic cooperation. And, as always, the event offers a chance for consultations among heads of state on issues that are not on the agenda, including mounting tensions between Algeria and Morocco over the Western Sahara.
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