Wrong-footed Arab governments on Sunday scrambled to rescue a summit that had been touted as a chance for them to embark on democratic change until host Tunisia announced it was calling it off at the 11th hour.
Egypt, expressing "astonishment and regret" at the fiasco, swiftly offered to host a replacement summit, but Tunisia rebuffed Cairo's attempt to seize the initiative and insisted it still had the right to stage the event.
"The problem has nothing to do with the location of the summit," which was to have opened here yesterday, the Tunisian foreign ministry said.
"Wanting to change the venue overshadows the real reasons" for the postponement, which was due to "serious differences on fundamental issues and future choices," it said.
The foreign ministry said Tunisia had the "right" to host the gathering because it currently held the rotating chairmanship of the 22-member Arab League.
In Sanaa, meanwhile, an official in Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's office said he and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had agreed the summit would be held in Cairo on April 16.
But an Arab League spokesman in Tunis, Hisham Yussef, said the situation was still in a state of flux and could not confirm the report.
"We have not been formally informed of a date," he said, adding that "hundreds of calls" were being made between foreign ministers and the league's secretary general Amr Mussa "on the steps to be taken in the next few days."
Mussa, head of the Cairo-based league, welcomed Egypt's offer to take over and host the summit -- the first formal gathering of Arab heads of state since the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein last April.
The Tunis cancellation statement late Saturday cited "differences" over proposals Tunisia had presented, which "it considers substantial and of great importance as to the process of development, modernization and reform in our Arab countries."
In Cairo, sources close to Mubarak's office said several Arab leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and Jordan's King Abdullah II, had approved "in principle" that the summit could be held in Egypt's capital.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was also in agreement, along with the Yemeni leader, the sources said.
Arab foreign ministers who were in Tunis to prepare for the summit said they were stunned when the Tunisian government told them it was indefinitely postponing the event because of differences over political reform.
By late Sunday, many of the ministers had already left on flights from the airport outside Tunis, a press photographer said.
The stakes for the summit had been especially high as Washington was pushing for reform as part of its war on terror, while angry Arab peoples demanded their authoritarian governments do more to defend the Palestinians against Israel and to end the US-led occupation of Iraq.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS