Fourth Arab Economic Summit in Beirut

· The Arab League ... did not unite the Arab states, as was the declared purpose of its founding in 1945..by the British colonialists!. Multiple splits and offspring occurred in the subsequent periods of its existence, which reduced the importance of this beleaguered League... such as the Maghreb Union and the Union of the Arab Cooperation Council, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the African Summit Union.. and bilateral unions, the last of which was the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council separated from the Gulf Cooperation Council..!!..Some Arab states were destroyed...by others. Strangers. While other Arab states were destroyed by states from the same Arab League..Some peoples of these member states in the Arab League were killed by leaders and coalitions of member states of the Arab League..Arab leaders and commanders were murdered treacherously..and others were tortured....A world war was led by the United States in a major coalition with other Arab states..in the First Gulf War, the Second, and others here and there .....the Arab League mobilized all its weight to urge Arab states to join the international coalition led by America, and President Saddam Hussein was treacherously killed by the Americans, with the assistance of other Arab leaders and others in the region. No Arab leader or the Arab League objected...to his killing on the Muslim Eid al-Adha day.!!....Events continued and then came the events in Syria, Libya and Egypt and the Saudi aggression and its coalition against Yemen ..and the displacement and killing of its people..and without the slightest feeling of Arab brotherhood nor Islamic brotherhood ..nor global human conscience... the Arab League did not object but its sessions mobilized energies to punish that Arab country!!..because that Arab country threatened Arab national security..and Arab national security would not be achieved except by occupying and destroying Yemen and by normalizing with Israel and receiving its officials in some Arab states...and Jerusalem slipped from their hands! ..by the Americans' decision and became the capital of Israel..!!....And no state objected to that, except with feeble phrases of protest, and did not go beyond verbal wording...only to shift the blame!!

- Arab will appears to be deficient...!! ....The United States almost inserts its nose into the theater of events in the Middle East with all its national and regional details...even in the formations of governments and ministers in every Arab country....!!...Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali was one example of how he could be Secretary-General of the United Nations, but the United States strongly opposed extending his term for a second tenure, despite the support of most countries of the world, led by France...the Arab League could not add anything to that, except to submit to American arrogance..despite the elements of strength possessed by members of the Arab League...!!

- We clearly recall what happened during the convening of the Arab Summit conference in Beirut in March 2002, where it was scheduled that the late President Yasser Arafat, who was then besieged in the Muqata'a in Ramallah by the Israeli occupation army...would be the second speaker in the opening session of the Arab Summit in Beirut, via satellite, where the summit administration in Beirut--Lebanon at that time refused to show or allow the late president to deliver his speech, citing the Arab Summit's fear of Israel intervening on the line and jamming the speech....!!! The Palestinian delegation threatened, after Arafat was not allowed to deliver his speech...to withdraw, where Mr. Farouk Qaddoumi was representing Palestine..The United States intervened at that time and during those moments...according to reports saying that achieving peace was more important than Arafat's presence or absence.!!. That mentioned summit was dedicated to announcing Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz's initiative at that time, which was called the Arab Peace Initiative..and it was said then..that there was American agreement with the announcement of the texts of this initiative, which was said at the time that Thomas Friedman, the American journalist of Jewish origin and a regular columnist in The Washington Post in the "Opinion" column...was the one who drafted it and publicly wrote its provisions months before the Arab initiative was announced...from Saudi Arabia. Therefore the conference at that time was dedicated to the Palestinian cause and yet Arafat was prevented from delivering his speech while under the unjust siege and, sadly, Arab leaders boycotted communications with Arafat at that time at American prompting, except for individual telephone contacts with the Qatari foreign minister...However President Arafat broadcast his speech via Al Jazeera at that time. But not in front of the Arab leaders at their summit.....!!
Just as happened when the United States pressured most Arab states when Palestine was able to obtain observer membership in the United Nations..and tried to dissuade the Palestinians from applying for United Nations membership...and in the end pressured them that their foreign ministers should not go to the United Nations. The Palestinian celebration of obtaining membership...was largely devoid of Arab foreign ministers participating in the celebration..where they were replaced by the then Turkish foreign minister who expressed his great pleasure at Palestine's acceptance as an observer member...and the Arab League had no strong influence in that.

- That conference reminds us of the recent Fourth Arab Economic Summit which was supposed to be attended by seven presidents at the Fourth session of the Arab Economic Summit in Beirut, which was held on 19 and 20 of this month..and the Arab disagreement was clearly reflected in the atmosphere and level of representation at the conference where none of the seven leaders who had confirmed their attendance actually attended, as most Arab states were represented by finance or economy ministers or general directors in some ministry and it was said that there was American pressure not to attend except at a low level..and not at the leaders' level...and the matter was attributed to many reasons as was said, the first of which was the Syrian issue and Hezbollah in Lebanon, etc., yet the Mauritanian president and the Somali president were the only two leaders who attended., and by a strange coincidence, the Americans also, as reported by news agencies, intervened and pressured that the Amir of Qatar go to attend the opening session...and that is what happened!!.

- It is clear that the Arab states, even in the third round of these economic summits held in Riyadh in 2013..and despite the attendance of some leaders, the dispute over Syria and some countries of the Arab Spring..was behind the appearance of the Arab world divided at that time as well!!

The Lebanese president, in his opening of the conference, indicated that the participants do not want to search for the causes of the wars raging in the region and who caused them. Rather, they seek and aspire to economic, social, and developmental cooperation to spread prosperity in the Arab countries, which is one of the main factors in peace in the region. The participating Arab countries were 20 countries. On the agenda there were 27 items. One of the most prominent headings at the Economic Summit conference in Beirut was establishing a free economy among the Arab countries, addressing poverty and Arab food security, and finding solutions to the situation of Syrian refugees in the host countries. There was Lebanese relief at the issuance of a decision regarding the displaced Syrian refugees, as the summit in its final statement called for securing the return of the refugees to their country. About 1,500,000 displaced and refugee Syrians are present in Lebanon and about 1,300,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan. They approved at the summit the necessity of implementing development projects in the host countries to mitigate the social and economic effects of their presence in these countries, in addition to encouraging and attracting foreign investment to the host countries.

- They also confirmed the "right of return and compensation for the Palestinian refugees and their descendants according to international legitimacy resolutions, especially UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194 of 1948..and the affirmation of international mandate for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and standing against ending or reducing its tasks and the necessity of funding it"

- Arab leaders are those who caused the Arab League's weakness..and lack of resourcefulness..as a result of financial pressure and the brutality and exploitation of the needs of some poor Arab states..!!...These leaders walk in directions guided by the United States. As is evident publicly...!!....And whoever refuses...destruction and economic ruin and the devaluation of his national currency surround him.....and staged unrest and orchestrated demonstrations take place in his country!!

- The Warsaw Conference is coming in February 2019, where arrangements are being made to establish an alliance that may be called the Arab-Israeli NATO under American supervision...in the Middle East...!!
The Arab League is accountable to the peoples of its member states...it is a league.!!...But there is nothing that unites it..except the linguistic sentiment it emits!!..devoid of substance, it arouses pity and the pity extends to the leaders of the Arab states who appeared before the world...they are driven..and have no choice in the face of American pressure and hegemony, the latest being the economic summit conference in Beirut...!!..Arabs must restructure the Charter of the Arab League so that at minimum its texts secure Arabs' rights and their true sovereignty, and to remove any interference in the course of its work.!!

- Date: 21-1-2019