Sectarian rift looms large over Baghdad summit

The Arab summit in Baghdad will officially take place Thursday, but it already fills the pages of newspapers Wednesday. On the agenda, reports Saudi-owned news site Elaph, are Syria, Palestine, Somalia, terrorism, and turning the Middle East into a nuclear-free zone. On Wednesday, Arab foreign ministers are set to meet and prepare the issues for Thursday’s schedule.

Bassam Badarin, reporting for the Arab nationalist daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, writes that Sunni Muslims are protesting across Iraq against their absence from the deliberations.

“The general impression in and around Iraq is that the summit is not Sunni but Shiite and Kurdish, not only on the level of attendance and representation, but more importantly on the level of its political agenda.”

Badarin reports that thousands of Sunni Iraqi activists have been arrested under the pretext of security preparations for the summit. He notes how all the key players in the summit’s organization are either Shiite or Kurdish politicians.

“It is clear that the Shiite-Kurdish alliance will lead the summit before the media and behind the scenes,” he writes.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat (pushing a staunchly Sunni agenda), covers the summit with some scorn. It reports that only 7 out of 21 Arab finance ministers took part in the opening meeting in Baghdad. The daily also reports that the Kuwaiti Emir will be the only Gulf leader to attend the summit. Saudi Arabia, which has just appointed a new non-resident ambassador to Iraq, will be sending a low-ranking representative to the Baghdad summit: its ambassador at the Arab League. A-Sharq Al-Awsat, too, notes the leading role of three Iraqi Kurds in the summit’s panels: trade minister Babakr Kheirallah Hassan, foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

The guessing game of which leaders will and will not attend the summit preoccupies the Arab media. Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki personally called Sudanese president and suspected war criminal Omar Bashir and conveyed an American assurance that he would not be arrested in Baghdad.

“This means that Bashir will be the most senior Arab leader to attend the summit,” writes the daily.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abd Al-Bari Atwan reminisces about the last summit in Baghdad, held 22 years ago. He writes that this year’s summit lacks “an aroma” with the absence of historic leaders such as Yasser Arafat and Muammar Gaddafi who gave the event a comic relief and moments of drama. But Atwan especially misses Saddam Hussein.

“The former president of Iraq, who stood proud before the gallows… spoke on behalf of glorious Iraq. He was a president who carried a message for the entire nation. But what can his successors be proud of? Widowing a million women, orphaning 4 million children or basic services that are semi-absent and a state with no military or security, no water, electricity or a middle class?”

With divided opposition, Assad more confident than ever

The appearance of a self-confident Bashar Assad in the battered city of Homs, apparently in full control of the situation despite reports of shots fired in his direction, dominates the Arab media coverage of Syria Wednesday. All major outlets feature photos of Assad speaking to Syrian officials on the ground.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul, opposition forces have decided to unite under the banner of the Syrian National Council. Ah-Sharq Al-Awsat reports that the opposition has decided to form a committee which will reorganize the Syrian National Council within 3 weeks.

But as Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports, the opposition is still riven with internal dissent. Liberal Syrian Islamist Haitham Maleh left the meeting hall during the deliberations Tuesday, showing his contempt for Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun. On Sunday, the international forum “Friends of Syria” is due to meet in Istanbul.

A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Samir Salha writes that for the “Friends of Syria” meeting not to become an “April fool’s day joke,” a practical mechanism must be put in place to implement the recent Security Council declaration on Syria.

“If the Istanbul meeting does not live up to expectations, it should be postponed or canceled,” writes Salha. “No one wants to read more statements of solidarity, support or condemnation.”

On the Toulouse footage and ethical journalism

Tareq Homayed, editor of A-Sharq Al-Awsat, commends Al-Jazeera for refraining from broadcasting footage of the Toulouse massacre. He writes that far from a purely ethical question, broadcasting such footage may inspire future acts of terrorism in Arab countries.

“Granting media coverage to terrorists… may affect the security of people and nations. It is impossible for a TV station, or any media outlet, to serve the objectives of terrorism, under any pretext — because that has consequences.”

“The simplest example is the old treatment of suicide bombings in Palestine. Eventually, these attacks reached our own Arab and Islamic cities,” writes Homayed.

“Therefore, we thank Al-Jazeera, but what if it held this policy 10 years ago? Many things would surely be different.”