Arab League Secretary-General Believes Arab Summit in Doha Will Be "Historic"

Doha , March 12 (QNA) - Arab League Secretary General Dr. Nabil El Arabi expressed Tuesday his confidence that the Arab Summit that will be held in Doha later this month will be a "historic" one, due to the topics that will be discussed and the decisions they require. El Arabi sat down with Qatar News Agency (QNA) Tuesday to discuss everything on the summit; he said that one of the main challenges that the summit will tackle will be how to develop the Arab League in order to be up for the developments of the Arab World. He revealed that the summit due to open this year will focus only on the two main causes of the Arab World. The first cause, the Secretary-General resumed, is the "chronic" Palestinian cause. The second issue to be discussed in the summit will be the crisis in Syria. El Arabi said that the Arab leaders will discuss the options available since the international community is yet to reach a compromise to end the conflict. The Arab League is yet to give a name to the summit, El Arabi said that they were considering whether the name should relate to the challenges facing the Arab World, reform in the Arab World or a combination of both. On Qatar's leadership of joint Arab work, El Arabi expressed his satisfaction at the efforts of all of the state's officials, who El Arabi said were working hard on making the summit a success. The Arab League Secretary-General revealed in his exclusive interview with QNA that the Arab League has been sending their delegations to Doha to follow up the preparations for the summit with the Qatari officials. The State of Qatar will chair the Summit this year. On developing the Arab League, El Arabi told QNA that work on developing the league began in September 2011 when they agreed to form a committee of specialists to discuss the topic. The committee worked for a year and three months and held two meetings in the Sultanate of Oman and Tunisia to discuss their conclusions. El Arabi was quoted as saying that the league have already started to implement some of these conclusions in January 2013. Other conclusions will be presented during the summit, he noted. On the Palestinian issue, El Arabi criticized Israel for its handling of the issue. He said that the Arab Foreign Ministers reached a conclusion that they will no longer look to pursue a peace process with Israel, because it never reaches a conclusion. Instead, the Arab world will look for ways to end the conflict with Israel by ending its occupation of all Arab lands in a given time frame. El Arabi revealed that he discussed the matter with US Secretary of State John Kerry recently. El Arabi said that Kerry expressed his understanding to the points raised by El Arabi. The Arab League Chief further said that the international community could stand by the Arab World in their demand because they have always supported a two-state solution since 1947. If a change of course does not take place soon, El-Arabi said, Israel's policies will destroy the two-state solution and establish an Apartheid system. On the Syrian conflict, the Arab League Secretary-General told QNA that the crisis stains the conscience of the entire world and not just the Arab World. He said that it was agreed in June 30 , 2012 that agreed a start of transitional period in Syria must start with a new government that has full powers. The Secretary-General lamented the failure of the super powers to go ahead and implement the resolutions, describing the Russian position from the agreement as unacceptable. Yet El Arabi maintained his hope that talks between Russia, US, Arab Countries and the Syrian opposition could lead to a breakthrough soon. Asked about the arming of the Syrian opposition, El Arabi said that the international community is reaching a stronger consensus regarding supporting the opposition in general. The Arab League Chief however stressed that the Arab League has always been firmly against arming the opposition, maintaining that the political solution to the crisis was the best way forward. (QNA)