Arab Intellectuals at Abu Dhabi Conference on Future of the Arab World See Strength in Unity

By Habeeb Salloum

"So you are going to a conference which will discuss the future of the Arab world," remembered my Arab-Canadian friend Tahar when I said I was traveling to Abu Dhabi to cover a three-day Symposium on the Future of the Arab World and the Role of the Arab League. "Who told you that the Arabs had a future?"

Like a great number of immigrants to North America and perhaps the majority of the educated in the Arab world, he had a negative attitude when it came to Arabs and their future. Yet, in spite of this cynical perspective, the United Arab Emirates, under the sponsorship of its president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, held a conference in early November 1997 to lay plans for the coming 21st century.

Some 250 experts, politicians, scholars, thinkers and writers from the Middle East and a number of Western countries discussed the prospects of the Arab world and the role that the Arab League should play.

Sheikh Zayed set the conference's central theme in the opening speech, read on his behalf by his son, Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The UAE president said that divisions among the Arabs were a source of strength to their enemies which have led to the degradation of the sacred Islamic shrines in Palestine and the humiliation of the people in the occupied territories. In Sheikh Zayed's words: "It is time to mend fences, forgive each other, and leave the door open for all Arabs to return to the Arab ranks."

He advocated serious dialogue plus a spirit of fraternity and tolerance, not isolation and fanaticism. Urging that the Arabs learn from their losses and discard their differences, Sheikh Zayed encouraged Arab intellectuals and thinkers to diagnose Arab ills, then come up with solutions to enable the Arab countries to take a future role among the other world nations worthy of their illustrious past.

His call to forgiveness, harmony and entente among Arabs formed the main focus of the symposium. Held from Nov. 2 to 4 in Abu Dhabi's Intercontinental Hotel under the chairmanship of Sheikh Sultan, the forum tackled economic blocs, advanced technologies and needed changes in the Arab countries.

It was no surprise that a few years back the Lebanese weekly Al Hawadith reported that Sheikh Zayed had declared: "Since the outbreak of Arab rifts I could not sleep a single night." On Aug. 8, 1997, Zayed told the Arabic daily Al Hayat that the Arabs must work hard to lift the embargo on the Iraqi people, stressing that the Arab League should upgrade its institutions and perform its duties more actively.

For three days, the brains of the Arab nations, with a sprinkling of sympathizers from the Western world, contrasted the solidarity of purpose of the Arabs with their failure to achieve integration and unity. Tackling the most urgent matters facing the Arab world—such as inter-Arab disputes, the setting up of an Arab free trade zone as the prelude to an Arab common market, economic and social development in the region, the Arab-Israeli peace process, future relations with neighboring states and superpowers, and the resurgence of Arab culture and civilization—the symposium waded into the practical problems facing the Arab world.

Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum, director of Dubai Information, called for the creation of an Arab news agency, emphasizing Arab/Islamic values, within the Arab League. Senior British statesman David Steel urged the European Union to develop a common Middle Eastern policy to offset American influence in the region. He warned that the Arabs were angry and frustrated by the failure of the European states to take a greater role in this part of the world.

Dr. Naseef Hitti, professor of international relations at the American University in Cairo, said in his paper that the Arab world in the 1990s is characterized by four phenomena, namely: the globalization of pan-Arab relations, the de-Arabization of those relations, increased trends toward regionalism, and an increasing tendency toward regional disintegration.

He recommended setting up an Arab political fund to promote Arab causes in the outside world, devising an attractive economic package to bring Russia back into the region, bringing Libya out of the cold, and an Arab-Iranian coalition to establish a degree of strategic parity with Israel. Commenting on the inter-Arab economic ties, he pointed out that trade exchanges between Arab countries are minimal—about 9 percent of the total of Arab trade with the outside world.

A leading British journalist, Dr. Patrick Seale, suggested that the Arabs should make more use of their financial muscle to be bolder and more independent in economic and political initiatives. He wondered why U.N. resolutions, when it came to Arabs, are implemented in letter and spirit while other resolutions, such as Resolution 425 of 1978, demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, have been ignored for the past 19 years.

During the conference it was evident that both Arab faith in the Middle East peace process and confidence in U.S. policies are eroding fast. This high level of distrust of American actions and intentions was vividly revealed during one of the sessions when former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy, now a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, spoke about the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. When he suggested that the U.S. policy of supplying Israel with advanced weaponry was to encourage it to take risks in negotiating peace, there was a roar of anti-American sentiment by almost all the conference participants.

Since everyone who spoke agreed that the Netanyahu Israeli government had effectively torpedoed the Oslo peace process, Murphy's words seemed to enrage the audience. All the delegates who expressed an opinion attacked his talk, making it evident that the U.S. has lost much of its credibility and support in the Arab world.

Near the end of the symposium, a number of conference participants were driven to Sheikh Zayed's Wathba Palace, located on the outskirts of the city, to attend a three-hour meeting with him and Sheikh Sultan. After delegates had thanked Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Sultan for their historic initiative in hosting the symposium and offering their opinions, they were addressed by Sheikh Zayed. He expressed hope for a new phase of history during which the Arab nation would overcome the negative consequences of the Gulf war and revive the role of the Arab League in a sincere spirit of Arab brotherhood.

He expressed his belief that Arab reconciliation would be achieved soon, revitalizing Arab glory and pride. "God willing, we will all become united in forgiveness, tolerance and solidarity, putting aside the differences of the past," he told the delegates. "All wars that took place in the world since time immemorial ended in reconciliation and peace."

A Message of Harmony

Emphasizing this message of pardon and harmony, he said the time has come to bring Iraq back into the Arab nation. He called on Arabs to learn from the lessons of the past, urging them to support brotherhood and shun aggression against each other in the media or on the battlefield. Continuing, he asserted that all disputes should be settled by the Arab League.

Sheikh Zayed advised the participants to diagnose Arab ills and crises, then come up with a mechanism that would enable their nation to emerge from disputes and disunity in order to take a leading role among other world powers. He pledged the UAE's resources and his personal efforts to achieve accord and understanding between Arabs, urging dialogue instead of conflict to eradicate differences.

The president said that Israel would not have taken the Arabs so lightly and the U.S. would not have practiced unjustified pressure against them if they had been united. A humanist, Sheikh Zayed said, "If Israel returned the rights to their owners, then the Arabs would cooperate with her because they have no greed for the rights of others."

On Nov. 4, the three-day symposium was officially closed by Sheikh Sultan. In the final communiqué, the delegates agreed to work toward heightened economic interdependence, liberalization of trade, establishment of an Arab free trade zone, strengthening the Arab League, endorsing the peace process, unity in confronting the Arab-Israeli conflict and the challenges of the 21st century, giving women a greater role in society, and the establishment of a united Arab culture and educational system. The conference called on all Arabs to tackle issues collectively in order to take an active role in a dramatically changing world.

There was a consensus that the charter of the Arab League had to be amended to make this organization effective. A number of participants predicted that even though many Europeans and North Americans perceive Arab nationalism as a grave threat, if the Arabs were united they would, as in the past, become great contributors to world civilization.

The overall mood of delegates to the symposium was optimistic. Since the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in the 13th century, the destiny of the Arab world has been controlled by others. However, during this conference in Abu Dhabi, a beautiful city which has risen like a phoenix from the desert, the Arabs have begun to plan their own future and renaissance.

Habeeb Salloum is a free-lance writer based in Don Mills, Ontario.