Saudis propose new Arab political order

Saudi Arabia has proposed a detailed plan to reform the Arab political order that would enable the Arab League to deal with the new regional realities imposed by the war on Iraq and the American engagement in peace making in the Middle East, officials said.

The proposed plan would radically change the 22-member league, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said in Bahrain on Tuesday. "It is time that we had an Arab League that is a solid regional organisation in the full sense of the word," he declared.

He was speaking at a joint press conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Moham-med bin Mubarak Al Khalifa following a meeting of 13 foreign ministers.

Sheikh Mohammed said the latest developments in the region, in Iraq and Palestine, have created a new reality. The old Arab ways have failed, he admitted.

"The new reality requires a common Arab work that is based on modern principles away from the old ways which didn't achieve the least of our hopes and ambitions," he said.

The league, which suffered serious divisions during the war on Iraq "should be re-constructed in a way that would allow it to confront future challenges through common Arab policies," said Sheikh Mohammed.

Kuwaiti newspapers said last month that Kuwait, which accused the league of appeasing Saddam Hussain's regime, has stopped paying its dues to the league. The Gulf state said the payments will be resumed only after the proposed reforms.

Libya, meanwhile, said it intends to quit the league altogether because the country's leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi argued that the organisation was "irrelevant" in the current state of world affairs.

However, other leaders managed to convince him to postpone the pullout in the hope that the Saudi plan would convince Libya to stay in the league.

According to Saudi newspapers, the plan, presented by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to Arab leaders in last March's Arab summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, says "it is time for the Arab nation to wake up. Arab leaders must, firstly, pledge to their peoples that they would work for the preservation of their countries' sovereignty, progress, territorial integrity and defence capabilities."

It then invites the foreign ministers to formulate "a new Arab charter" aimed at securing the legitimate demands of the nation, building a common action plan and re-organising inter-Arab ties and the nation's international relations.

The document says the Arabs must reiterate that just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is their "strategic choice" in the quest of liberating their lands occupied in 1967 in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

An important aspect of the proposed plan involves an Arab mechanism to stop an Arab state attacking another one. "The members must commit to the peaceful settlement of all inter-disagreements," it says.

"When a member state attacks another, the other members will have to stand together to defend the attacked country." Economically, the plan calls for the establishment of an Arab free zone by 2005. "The zone should be free of any administrative and technical restrictions."

It says the zone is a first step towards setting up an Arab customs union within 10 years to pave the way for the long-sought Arab common market.

"The three projects should be based upon the internationally accepted principles of the' free market," it explains.

Should the leaders endorse the charter, it would by binding on' all member states, the plan says. The state that violates the charter or stands in the way of implementing it would be "confronted firmly" by the collective will of the other members, the document says.

Moussa said the Saudi proposal will be studied by a number of Arab experts and a report would be submitted to His Majesty King Hamad of Bahrain, the current president of the Arab League, in the next six weeks. Then it will be presented to other states.

A final decision on the proposed reforms might be taken by the leaders in the next Arab summit in Tunis in March 2004.