Arab League Summit to Begin amid Divisions
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Heads of Arab states are preparing to hold their annual summit amid an unprecedented diplomatic fallout among the Persian Gulf countries and tension over the crisis in Egypt and the conflict in Syria.
Several leaders have already arrived in Kuwait for the two-day Arab League summit, which begins on Tuesday, including the Egyptian interim prime minister, the Yemeni president and the head of Libya's General National Congress.
Syria's seat in the 22-nation bloc will remain vacant although the last annual summit, held in Doha, granted the seat to the opposition. Syria's membership was suspended in November 2011 over the government's bloody crackdown on dissent, Al Jazeera reported.
The leader of Syria's opposition National Coalition, Ahmad al-Jarba, has been invited to address the Arab summit, but countries such as Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria expressed reservations to granting the seat to the opponents of the embattled Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
A rift inside the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) is expected to add another layer of difficulty to the Arab League as it struggles to find common ground over regional crises.
Arab officials on Monday said some nations will likely use the summit to try to pressure Qatar to stop their perceived support of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition movements throughout the region.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have labelled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, and two senior officials told the Associated Press news agency that those two countries would take the lead in attempting to isolate Doha by calling for a collective Arab approach to terror.
The summit follows weeks of escalated tensions over the issue. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar.
Qatar has reacted with dismay at the diplomatic gestures but insisted it will push ahead with its own policies.
