Off To A Bad Start

It was a good idea. Although physically absent, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could still participate in the Arab League summit in Beirut, which kicked off on Wednesday, via a satellite link.

But after Lebanese authorities failed to broadcast Arafat's speech to Arab leaders, allegedly due to technical difficulties, the Palestinian delegation walked out. The United Arab Emirates downgraded its representatives in solidarity.

Israel announced on the eve of the summit that it would not let Arafat leave his headquarters in Ramallah. He has been pinned down in the West Bank city by Israel for more than three months. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shrugged off appeals from the United Nations, the European Union and many world leaders for Israel to allow Arafat to attend the summit.

Even the United States, Israel's closest ally, had urged Sharon to let Arafat go to the Lebanese capital to add weight to a Middle East peace initiative.

"Unfortunately the conditions are not yet ripe for Chairman Arafat's departure for Beirut," Sharon said in an interview for Israel television's Arabic-language program.

Arab support for "Israeli arrogance"

Sharon said it would be easier for Israel's cabinet to let Arafat travel abroad if the Palestinian leader addressed his people in Arabic to declare a ceasefire and call for an end to violence in an 18-month-old uprising against the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Arafat would not allow Israel to pressure the Palestinian negotiators into submitting to Israeli conditions. Sharon's statements that he might veto Arafat's return if attacks on Israel continued also led the Palestinian leader to decide not to attend the meeting.

Sharon had earlier said he regretted promising the US he would not harm the Palestinian leader. "Perhaps my agreement was correct at the beginning, but at a certain stage of the clashes, it became an error," he told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in an interview.

Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu al-Ragheb, who is heading his country's delegation, urged Arabs to confront "any attempts to marginalize, weaken or substitute" Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.

"The Palestinian leader's absence from this summit requires us all to provide more support and backing to the Palestinian brethren in facing Israeli arrogance," Abu al-Ragheb said.

Saudi peace plan at the top of the agenda

Abu al-Ragheb is filling in for Jordan's King Abdullah, who cancelled at the last minute. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's chair also remains empty at the table. His Foreign Minister explained the absence was due to "domestic issues".

The Jordanian Prime Minister said his country endorsed the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's peace proposal for the Middle East. It calls on the Arab world to offer Israel peace and normal ties if it quits all Arab lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and accepts a Palestinian state. "We back and support this initiative, which constitutes a cornerstone of comprehensive peace in the region," Abu al-Ragheb told the opening session.

"The initiative also sends a clear message to the whole world that Arabs want peace and that they are working to achieve it for all peoples of the region, and that Israel is the one putting obstacles in its way," he added.

The importance given to the summit by the international community is evident by the list of foreign dignitaries attending. These include UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

Solana called his presence both "a clear signal and an expression of hope". He said the EU will continue its efforts in the Middle East. "We're willing to help on all fronts and are working on a return to dialog," he said in an article published on Wednesday in the Arab League countries' major newspapers.