Tunisia proposes the convening of the Arab summit on May 22 and 23
Tunisia-Regional, Politics, 4/19/2004

An Arab diplomatic source in Cairo said on Sunday that Tunisia proposed the convening of an Arab summit on May 22 and 23 in Tunis.

The Tunisian proposal was conveyed on Saturday to members of the Arab League and the "final decision will be taken in consultation with all members of the Arab organization," as explained by the same source.

The expected summit will be held instead of the summit which was due on march 29 and 30 and postponed by the host country until unlimited time because of inter- Arab " deep differences " on the issue of democratic reforms in the Middle East, according to the Tunisian authorities.

The summit will be preceded by a meeting for the Arab foreign ministers at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo in the second week of May. The diplomatic source added that the official calls to the summit will be headed to the Arab league following the visit made by the Tunisian foreign minister Habib Bin Yahya to Cairo on next Wednesday and Thursday.

In a statement to the Egyptian daily al-Ahram published on Sunday, the secretary general of the Arab League Amr Moussa said that "there is an experience behind the summit that no body wants to be repeated and therefore good preparations should be made for it." As for the level of representation at the summit, Moussa considered that the level of representation "is important but should not constitute a precondition, especially if we remember that Beirut's summit of 2002 was one of the most important Arab summits which came up withy very important decisions, and was attended by less than Arab presidents."

Leaders of several Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain said that they will not come to Tunisia. A matter which raises fears of the failure of the summit before announcing its postponement.

Previous Stories:
  Moussa welcomes Tunisia's initiative, stresses summit to be held in May   (4/7/2004)
  Bin Ali is committed to reforms; al-Faisal stressed the inevitability of convening the summit   (4/3/2004)
  Moussa to leave for Tunis on Friday   (3/31/2004)

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