When is arab summit

Local elections: Positive assessment of first week of election campaign - Friday, 12 November President Tebboune conducts partial reshuffle among ministers - Thursday, 11 November President Tebboune chairs working session with heads of diplomatic, consular missions in Europe, North America - Thursday, 11 November Coronavirus: new cases, 79 recoveries and six deaths - Thursday, 11 November Exception of unconstitutionality, mechanism to protect litigants - Thursday, 11 November Hassi Berkine: Sonatrach to build first photovoltaic plant with its own funds - Thursday, 11 November Education: Algeria, Italy express willingness to strengthen cooperation - Thursday, 11 November Beldjoud begins two-day working visit to Spain - Thursday, 11 November Any change in relations between Algeria, Morocco - Thursday, 11 November Algerian-Turkish Joint Commission: Towards signature of cooperation agreements in several fields - Thursday, 11 November Another "what" issue still unresolved is whether the summit should limit itself to discussion of the Arab-Israeli peace process or expand the agenda to include other matters of importance to the Arab world, like UN sanctions on Libya, the widespread killing in Algeria, and the impending starvation in Sudan.

A broader agenda would dilute the summit's emphasis on branding Israel as the source of the peace process impasse -- and therefore would not please Syria and the PLO.

Paradoxically, such a full agenda would be more likely if attendance included states outside the Arab-Israel "confrontation zone," as favored by Asad and Arafat. When: Moderates and radicals in the Arab world tend to disagree about the urgency of holding the summit without delay. The issue is whether to hold the summit now, when the "further redeployment" plan remains under the Israeli government's active consideration, or to wait until such time as the U.

Washington apparently asked its friends in the Arab world to hold off so as to provide more time to win Israeli agreement on the second redeployment. Where: Choosing the site of the summit is closely related to the determining its agenda and defining the political environment in which it will be held.

Syria wants the summit to be in Damascus, which was designated at the last Arab summit as the venue for the next gathering of Arab leaders. Jordan has resisted this idea because it would necessitate a certain deference to the host's hardline political views; instead, Amman has preferred that the summit be held in Riyadh or at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo. This disagreement between Syria and Jordan has reignited longstanding tensions that erupted at the last major Arab summit, following Netanyahu's election.

Echoing Syria's scathing criticism of Jordan's separate and relatively warm peace with Israel, the pro-government Damascus daily newspaper al-Ba'ath editorialized that "some parties Why: Though the rationale for convening the summit seems clear -- to condemn Israeli "intransigence" as the cause for the peace process impasse and to "unify Arab ranks" to confront Israeli "schemes" to divide the Arabs -- there are significant differences among Arab states as to the summit's practical objectives.

Reading and listening to their rhetoric, it appears that parties that have signed agreements with Israel i. In contrast, those that have criticized these bilateral peace arrangements and other acts of inter-Arab "treason" e.

These alternative approaches are generally left vague, although they always include halting normalization in order to isolate Israel politically and economically. Some proposals have hinted at recalling ambassadors and reactivating the secondary and tertiary aspects of the Arab boycott.

How: With all these unanswered questions, considerable doubt remains about how the Arab leaders will find the wherewithal to overcome their disagreements and convene a summit. After all the urgent discussion about the summit over the past few months, and with all the intra-Arab shuttle diplomacy mostly by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah that has already been invested in preparing for one, failure to hold any summit -- large or small -- will inevitably be portrayed in the Arab world as another humiliating political defeat for the Arabs.

However, popular expectations for a productive summit are so high that holding one without adequate guarantees for more than a photo-op will result in even deeper disappointment and disillusionment.

Implications for the United States: The primary U. At the same time, recent U. Against that backdrop, the most prudent path for Washington would be, in the first instance, to allow inter-Arab politics to run their course, which may scuttle the summit. Should the summit ultimately be convened anyway, quiet diplomacy with America's Arab allies would be the best chance to lessen the negative affects of a summit on the peace process. A high-profile diplomatic push may make the summit more likely to occur, give it more credence than it would otherwise have, and thus backfire against wider U.