Arab Summit Collapses over Human Rights Reforms

[JohnLocke]

Arab Summit Falls Apart Over U.S. Reforms
By Sam F. Ghattas -- Associated Press
Sunday, March 28, 2004
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TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- Egypt offered Sunday to host a summit of Arab leaders, trying to resurrect a meeting that collapsed because of deep divisions over how to bring more democracy to the Middle East and tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Arab League leaders had intended to use the summit, which was slated to start Monday, to relaunch a 2-year-old Saudi-crafted peace initiative toward Israel.
They were also to submit proposals for political reforms in their countries in response to U.S. calls for greater freedoms in the region. Many of the most powerful countries in the Middle East are led by absolute rulers or royal families.
(...)
Ordinary Arabs reacted with shock and blamed their leaders for the scuttling of the meeting.
"Arab leaders are serving their own interests and their only motive is a hunger for power," said unemployed Yemeni Saleh Shawash as he gazed at newspaper headlines in the capital Sana'a.
"We keep going from bad to worse," said Iman Darwish, a 42-year-old Lebanese homemaker.
(...)
A consultant to the Saudi government, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Egypt, Syria and Lebanon argued that talk of peace and reform was politically unwise in wake of Yassin's assassination. Jordan and Qatar argued that the Arabs should press ahead despite the killing, he said.
The reform plans were supposed to have been unveiled in response to the U.S. "Greater Middle East Initiative" to promote more freedom in a region where change could threaten the very existence of many regimes.
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Read the rest here.

[JohnLocke]

1. Self-kick.

:kick: :kick:

[JohnLocke]

2. Yet another self-kick.

:kick: :kick: