As the summit opened in a former palace of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the powerful Sunni monarchs of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other Gulf nations and Jordan and Morocco were absent.
The only ruler from the Gulf to attend was the emir of Kuwait, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, whose attendance was significant because Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 and occupied it for nearly seven months before a U.S.-led coalition drove his army out. Relations between the two neighbours have been fraught with tension since and even after Saddam's 2003 ouster. Sheik Al Sabah's attendance should cap recent improvement in relations.
The one-day summit ended with a call on Syria's embattled regime to “immediately implement” proposals put forward by joint UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to end the deadly year-long conflict. The summit's final communique said that the Arab leaders fully support the “legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people to democracy and freedom and their right to determine their future.”
The plan calls for Damascus to immediately stop troop movements and use of heavy weapons in populated areas and to commit to a daily two-hour halt in fighting to allow humanitarian access and medical evacuations. It includes a full cease-fire to be supervised by the UN so that all parties can discuss a political solution.
In his first comments on Mr. Annan's plan, Mr. al-Assad says Syria will “spare no effort” to ensure the mission's success, according to the state news agency. Mr. al-Assad said Mr. Annan must also get a commitment from armed groups to cease their “terrorist acts” against his government.
Speaking at the post-summit news conference, Arab league chief Nabil Elaraby suggested that the Annan plan was Mr. al-Assad's last chance for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, which the UN says has killed at least 9,000 people.
“Assad was given more than one chance. The issue is now with the United Nations and the Security Council,” said Mr. Elaraby. “The ball is now in Syria's court. It will have to act positively.”
One reason for the absences was the Gulf leaders' deep distrust of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, which they believe is a proxy for Iran. In unusually direct remarks, Qatar's prime minister said the lower representation was to protest what he called the Baghdad government's marginalization of Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority.
Another reason was the bitterness surrounding the main issue hanging over the summit — the conflict in Syria — on which Iraq has taken an ambivalent stand.
Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, remained upbeat. He told a news conference at the end of the summit: “We are very comfortable with the level of representation considering the present conditions (in Iraq). The most important thing is that all Arab states participated. It was a historic summit.”
He , however, reacted angrily when asked about the representation of Saudi Arabia and Qatar by their ambassadors to the Arab League in its Cairo headquarters.
“We are not concerned, we are not bothered as long as they came.”
Arab leaders in the Gulf want tough action to stop the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on the opposition, with their eye on ultimately bringing down President Basher Assad. If Mr. al-Assad goes, they hope, they can break Sunni-majority Syria out of its alliance with Iran. However, Iraq, which also has close ties to Iran, has resisted any strong measures by the Arab League on Syria, with Zebari saying he was opposed to foreign intervention there.
The summit is the first held by the 22-member League since the Arab Spring revolts began sweeping through the region more than a year ago. The turmoil forced the cancellation of last year's summit. Since then, four perennials of the summit have been swept from the scene — Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.
