Riyadh hosts Arab quartet summit

Akram Younis – exclusive to www.al-shorfa.com
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-03-17

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meet at the Arab mini-summit in Riyadh. (Saudi news agency)

The Saudi capital of Riyadh was the venue for a March 11 meeting of the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Kuwait, during which they explored ways to end inter-Arab hostilities and close Arab ranks.

A communiqué at the close of the mini-summit stated that the leaders were motivated by a mutual desire to reach conciliation, prompted by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz’s initiative at the Kuwait Economic Summit at the end of January urging Arabs to rise above their differences for the sake of Arab harmony.

The communiqué said the four heads of state considered the meeting a “first step towards a new phase of relations and a united approach to policy on the fundamental issues facing the Arab world, the Palestinian issue foremost amongst them.”

At the Kuwait Economic Summit, the Saudi monarch issued a call to Arab leaders to give precedence to common interests and overcome their differences. The move also coincided with the special summit convened by Qatar on the Gaza issue which included Iran and Syria and which was strongly rejected by Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Director of media affairs at the Saudi Foreign Ministry Osama Al-Naqli said the absence of stability in the region and the military operations in the Gaza Strip were harbingers of what could happen on a wider scale “if we do not move quickly to resolve the problem.” He said Saudi Arabia has repeatedly asserted that the fundamental source of the problems in the region is the Arab-Israeli conflict, and added that the recent Saudi-Syrian rapprochement “was no surprise.”

President Assad’s visit to Saudi Arabia followed years of tension between Damascus and Riyadh that escalated to new heights after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

Some political commentators believe Riyadh is mending fences with Damascus in an effort to isolate Iran from Syria, Iran’s principal Arab ally and that the Saudi monarch wants to see the return of united Arabs standing behind the Arab initiative for peace with Israel.

[Saudi news agency, Agence France Presse]

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