Arab League Backs Down on Stance Against Syrian Leader Assad

The leaders of the Arab world are meeting in Baghdad – or at least some of them are.

Representatives from only 10 out of 22 countries have turned up.

For those in attendance, the main subject of Thursday’s Arab League summit is Iraq’s neighbor, Syria.

Reporter Jane Arraf is in Baghdad. She speaks with anchor Marco Werman.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World. Arab League leaders gathered in Baghdad today. Well, at least some of them did; only 10 of the league’s 22 heads of state turned up for the summit, not exactly a vote of confidence in Iraq as it hosts its first Arab League summit since Saddam Hussein’s time. Report Jane Arraf is in Baghdad and has been following today’s events. The main subject as the summit got underway, Jane, was inevitably Iraq’s neighbor Syria. What was discussed today?

Jane Arraf: Essentially what they did at the end of the summit and the summit is really probably a little bit more for show than substance, but they came up with something called the Baghdad Declaration and part of that was an endorsement of the peace plan for Syria proposed by the special envoy for Syria from the UN, Kofi Annan. They called on Syria to end the implement the plan and the UN Secretary General pointed out that the UN monitors, so essentially they’re kicking the ball into Syria’s court and it also passes it a little bit to the UN, but again, it was really a parlor game of who was going to come, who was going to stay away, who was going to promise to come and not come, and who was going to finally sit in those seats, those 21 seats around that big table in this beautifully renovated palace.

Werman: Well, why the low turnout, Jane, I mean Jordan, Morocco, all the Gulf states except Kuwait stayed away? What’s going on?

Arraf: You know, the Iraqis would say and other diplomats say as well that it actually isn’t that low. Normally Arab League summits get 8-12 members, heads of state, they got nine. Okay, one of them was the Sudanese president who has been wanted for war crimes in international court, but still, they got nine. And significantly, they got the Kuwaiti in there who came and embraced Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after 20 years in bitterness between the two countries. Now the reason they didn’t get more is there’s because there’s a lot of bitterness still in the Gulf over things going on currently in Iraq; that includes the Shia prime minister and what they see as the marginalization of Sunnis.

Werman: So the summit was as you say, somewhat put on for show, still with regards to Syria, the ball is now in Syria’s court, as you pointed out with the Arab League saying you’ve gotta comply with Kofi Annan’s peace plan. So what’s been the response from Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, to that?

Arraf: Well, he has said he accepted the plan, he has accepted the plan, but he said before that he’s accepted various other plans and hasn’t actually implemented them. So really there’s quite a lot of skepticism here still about whether he will do that. The problem is if he doesn’t implement them what do you do next? Countries like Iraq, particularly Iraq, being Syria’s neighbor and having ties, is terrified at the thought of foreign intervention. The thought being that that could potentially send the country spiraling toward civil war, and it wouldn’t be just civil war in Syria, as tragic as it’s already been there. It would engulf the entire region. Also, Iran of course is a concern. Iran is a close ally to Syria, so this brings it out of the arena of usual problems in the Arab region and potential absolute catastrophe.

Werman: Reporter Jane Arraf in Baghdad at the Arab League summit. Thanks as always, Jane.

Arraf: Thank you, Marco.

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