Setting
The original venue of the 19th Arab summit was to be Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt; however, in mid-January 2007, Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, announced that the summit would convene in Riyadh. This, according to scholars, seemed an “indication that Saudi Arabia was keen to promote the cause of Arab unity.” Ambassador Mohamed Qattan, Saudi permanent representative to the Arab League, said, “The ongoing developments in the Arab region and the critical situation that the Arab peoples are passing through has prompted the Saudi monarch to call for the convocation of the summit in Riyadh rather than Sharm El-Sheikh.” Egyptian leaders did not publicly questioning the matter.
The venue, date and agenda of the annual Arab summit have always been an issue of contention, speculation and controversy. When Arab leaders met in Cairo in October 2000 to adopt a resolution proposing the annual convocation of the Arab summit, they decided that the chairmanship of the summit would be rotated among the 22 member states of the League, and that the summit should convene at the headquarters of the Arab League unless the chair wished to host it. In March 2001, Jordan chaired and hosted the Arab summit. This, however, was the first and last time in which the convocation of the Arab summit was a smooth operation.
A major issue that marred the 2007 Arab League summit was the absence of Libya. According to Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham, Libya boycotted the summit in protest of the lack of “seriousness” of Arab countries. "All the Arabs now consider Iran to be the main enemy and have forgotten Israel," said Shalgham. While Arabs "keep pressing the Palestinians to respond to the conditions of the (Middle East) Quartet, no one presses Israel." In January 2007, Moussa traveled to Libya to discuss the matter with Libyan leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Moussa aimed to secure Libya’s participation in the Riyadh summit but ultimately failed. Libya's absence has also been attributed to a public quarrel that al-Gaddafi had with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia in 2003 over the United States military presence in the region.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Arab League Summit
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