Arab Summits... A History of Decisions and Transformations

King Faisal and Algerian President Houari Boumediene at the Arab League’s 1974 summit in Rabat, Morocco (Getty Images)
King Faisal and Algerian President Houari Boumediene at the Arab League’s 1974 summit in Rabat, Morocco (Getty Images)
TT

Arab Summits... A History of Decisions and Transformations

King Faisal and Algerian President Houari Boumediene at the Arab League’s 1974 summit in Rabat, Morocco (Getty Images)
King Faisal and Algerian President Houari Boumediene at the Arab League’s 1974 summit in Rabat, Morocco (Getty Images)

Over eight decades, Arab League leaders have convened 46 summits, including 31 regular and 15 emergency sessions, as well as 4 Arab economic development summits. These gatherings have involved extensive consultations, deliberations, and transformations, leaving a lasting impact on Arab collective action, while some have become forgotten in Arab memory.

Ahmed Youssef Ahmed, Professor of Political Science and former Dean of the Arab Research Institute affiliated with the Arab League, highlights the Cairo Summit of 1964 as one of the most influential Arab summits in shaping the Arab landscape.

At that time, unprecedented Arab-Arab conflicts prevailed. There was Arab resentment against the Iraqi regime’s policies seeking to annex Kuwait, as well as tension between Egypt and Syria following their separation in 1961.

Moreover, Egyptian-Saudi differences emerged against the backdrop of the Yemeni revolution, along with armed clashes between Algeria and Morocco due to border disputes. Concurrently, Israel accelerated its projects to divert the course of the Jordan River.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Ahmed emphasized that during the summit, Arab chiefs of staff acknowledged their incapacity to address Israeli projects at that time. As a result, an emergency summit was called, with the participation of all Arab leaders except the King of Libya, who delegated his crown prince to attend.

The summit established alternative Arab projects against Israeli initiatives, promoted harmony among Arab nations, formed a unified Arab military leadership, and laid the foundation for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

While Arab summits continued to convene annually, the Arab memory may hold a special recollection of the Khartoum Summit in August 1967, known as the “Three Noes” summit. The three noes of Khartoum stood for: “No peace with Israel, no negotiation with Israel, no recognition of Israel.”

Ahmed recalled the accompanying atmosphere of that summit, noting that it took place at a crucial time following the “devastating defeat” of Arab armies in June 1967. He highlights that the summit witnessed an Egyptian-Saudi agreement on resolving the conflict in Yemen.

At the summit, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait offered substantial financial support to the countries confronting Israel, a decision regarded by Ahmed as a pivotal moment for Arab national security.

The summit witnessed a fading of Arab contradictions as the shared objective of mitigating the consequences of aggression took center stage. It is worth noting that the primary supporters of the confronting countries were monarchies, which had previously been perceived as contradictory to countries like Egypt and Syria.

After three years, the Arab world witnessed the “fastest Arab summit in history,” according to Ahmed.

The Cairo Summit, held in September 1970, swiftly convened within 24 hours amid perilous circumstances arising from the clash between Jordanian authorities and Palestinian resistance. This summit established a red line prohibiting Arab states from clashing with the resistance, leading to a ceasefire agreement and concluding with the departure of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Another noteworthy summit is the Sirte Summit, hosted by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2010, just a year before his ousting. Furthermore, the 2015 Sharm El-Sheikh Summit saw Arab endorsement of the “Decisive Storm” campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, which, as stated by Ahmed, “halted Iranian expansion in Yemen.”

The Makkah Summit, held in May 2019, was the latest exceptional Arab summit addressing Iranian intervention. Prompted by attacks on commercial vessels in UAE waters and Houthi attacks on Saudi oil pumping stations, the summit affirmed Arab solidarity against Iranian interventions. It condemned Iran’s interference in Bahrain, its impact on Syria’s unity, its occupation of Emirati islands, and its support for terrorist groups.

Following a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arab summits resumed in 2022 with a “Reconciliation” themed summit in Algeria. Although previous discussions sought to restore Syria’s membership in the Arab League, it was not accomplished at that time. The objective of “Reconciliation” was postponed to the current summit in Jeddah, which will mark the first fully attended Arab summit in 12 years.



US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

 People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

 People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)

US State Department officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents of civilian harm during Israel's military operations in Gaza involving US-furnished weapons, but have not taken further action on any of them, three sources, including a US official familiar with the matter, said this week.

The incidents - some of which might have violated international humanitarian law, according to the sources - have been recorded since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Gaza war started. They are being collected by the State Department's Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, a formal mechanism for tracking and assessing any reported misuse of US-origin weapons.

State Department officials gathered the incidents from public and non-public sources, including media reporting, civil society groups and foreign government contacts.

The mechanism, which was established in August 2023 to be applied to all countries that receive US arms, has three stages: incident analysis, policy impact assessment, and coordinated department action, according to a December internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.

None of the Gaza cases had yet reached the third stage of action, said a former US official familiar with the matter. Options, the former official said, could range from working with Israel's government to help mitigate harm, to suspending existing arms export licenses or withholding future approvals.

The Washington Post first reported the nearly 500 incidents on Wednesday.

The Biden administration has said it is reasonable to assess that Israel has breached international law in the conflict, but assessing individual incidents was "very difficult work," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

"We are conducting those investigations, and we are conducting them thoroughly, and we are conducting them aggressively, but we want to get to the right answer, and it's important that we not jump to a pre-ordained result, and that we not skip any of the work," Miller said, adding that Washington consistently raises concerns over civilian harm with Israel.

The administration of President Joe Biden has long said it is yet to definitively assess an incident in which Israel has violated international humanitarian law during its operation in Gaza.

John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the Biden administration "has consistently deferred to Israeli authorities and declined to do its own investigations."

"The US government hasn't done nearly enough to investigate how the Israeli military uses weapons made in the United States and paid for by US taxpayers," he said.

The civilian harm process does not only look at potential violations of international law but at any incident where civilians are killed or injured and where US arms are implicated, and looks at whether this could have been avoided or reduced, said one US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A review of an incident can lead to a recommendation that a unit needs more training or different equipment, as well as more severe consequences, the official said.

Israel's military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities.

The latest episode of bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.