The Arab family divided (family of countrys)

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KC31Ak01.html


The "Arab Family" was due to hold its 21st summit on Monday in Doha. But Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision not to show up - made late on Saturday - has put a damper on the hopes of Arab and Western observers.

Not only has Mubarak - the second-longest Arab leader in office after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - decided not to attend, but in his place he has sent a low-key official rather than the prime minister or the foreign minister.

In some ways, Mubarak is snubbing the Arab family, throwing sand in the eyes of the Qataris by intentionally trying to drown a summit that Doha wants to be a success. Because of the weight that Egypt carries, Mubarak feels that he can get away with it and obstruct any resolutions made in Doha vis-a-vis the future of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

If anything, this is testimony to how deep the divisions are between Egypt and Qatar, partly over the latter's decision to invite Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to the summit. While Egypt supports the West Bank government of the pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, Qatar is allied with Syria and Iran behind the Hamas-led government in Gaza.

Hours before the summit started, a total of nine Arab leaders, headed by Mubarak, were expected to boycott the conference, for a variety of reasons. The one common factor was Iran. Many have said that this will be the lowest turnout for any Arab summit since they were first held - ironically in Egypt - in 1946. The same was said of the Damascus summit in 2008, where 11 Arab leaders showed up, minus Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Only 10 leaders showed up at the Beirut summit of 2002, and another 10 at the Sharm al-Sheikh summit of 2003. Only 12 came to Sudan in 2006, while the highest turnout was in Saudi Arabia in 2007, when 17 Arab leaders came.

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More recently, the real fear in Egypt is of Iran's ambitions in the Arab world. Last month, a senior Iranian official made remarks that threatened the sovereignty of Bahrain - sending shockwaves through Cairo, which then lobbied its African ally, Morocco, to cut off diplomatic relations with Tehran. Egypt regards itself as a heavyweight in the Arab world and said that it if did have an embassy in Tehran it would have closed it.



Egypt is doing itself a disservice, the nations argue, by placing itself in the awkward position of forcing the nations to choose between it or Iran. At a deeper level, one might also notice displeasure in Egypt over the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Syria, arguing that this leaves Egypt isolated in its cold war battle with Iran.

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The world's attention is more focused on the attendance of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, who will be the star of Doha. Bashir landed in Doha on March 29, despite the arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 4 for war crimes.
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