A planned two-day Arab League summit -- marred by discord over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a US-backed Middle East reform plan -- has been postponed owing to discord among Arab leaders.
Arab leaders had hoped to use the conference, which was to begin today, to relaunch a Saudi-crafted peace initiative to Israel and to submit their own proposals for political reforms.
However, last week's assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin provoked widespread outrage in the Arab world, making it politically risky for some states to pursue a peace initiative.
Late Saturday night, a Tunisian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hatem bin Salem, told reporters "there are disagreements" and announced the postponement of the summit.
Differing views
The Foreign Ministry cited the "existence of difference of views" regarding issues "of great importance to the process of development, modernization and reform in our Arab countries."
"Tunisia strongly regrets the postponement of this summit on which Arab and international opinion has pinned great hopes considering the delicate situation through which the Arab nation is going and the deadlock of the Palestinian issue after the recent tragic events," a ministry statement said.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa brushed past reporters as he left, saying "No comment" three times.
But later Egypt's semiofficial Middle East News Agency quoted him as saying: "The postponement will have grave and major repercussions on collective Arab action. We should not blame Tunisia alone. It is shared by all the Arabs."
MENA reported that when Moussa was asked if he would reconvene Arab foreign ministers, he replied: "This is premature and it is in the hands of the rulers."
US officials had hoped the summit would breathe new life into a two-year-old Arab peace initiative toward Israel and address the challenge of political reform as the US attempts to establish democracy in Iraq.
Washington had no immediate comment on the postponement of the summit.
But fallout from Yassin's killing apparently has scuttled the talks, which recently has been marred by infighting among countries in the 22-member organization.
Israel's March 22 assassination of the disabled Hamas leader emboldened hard-line Syria to block a summit declaration advancing the 2002 Arab initiative, diplomats said. The initiative sought to offer Israel peace in return for a withdrawal from all lands overrun in the 1967 war.
In preliminary talks among Arab foreign ministers, the Syrians also sought to block proposals for political reform and for endorsing Libya's move to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said "we hoped that the summit should have been convened. We regret [the postponement]. President Bashar Assad was on his way."
With the political climate in such turmoil, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, father of the 2002 peace plan, and six other heads of state decided to stay away from the summit -- although some did so for genuine health reasons.
Proposals
A preliminary weekend meeting of Arab foreign ministers revealed deep differences over the peace initiative and proposals for political reforms in the region.
Since Thursday, Arab foreign ministers have been considering position papers on reform submitted by five countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Qatar and Tunisia.
Arab diplomats said the Syrian delegation tried to torpedo statements on the peace initiative, reforms and Libya's weapons move.
"The Syrians acted as if they want to turn the tables on the whole summit," one Arab diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Arab leaders had also planned to unveil a political reform package in response to the US "Greater Middle East Initiative" to promote more freedom.
Moussa had cautioned that Arab reaction to US calls for reform had been negative since many Arabs distrust American motives because of US support for Israel.
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