Khartoum: Thirty-nine years have passed since the last time Arab leaders met in the Sudanese capital. The city, with its British colonial bridges and sandy roads, has not changed much.
But the Arabs certainly have, especially on the Middle East peace front, officials and analysts say.
Radical parties were in power in many Arab states then. Egyptian nationalist president Jamal Abdul Nasser was the de-facto leader of the Arab League, riding high on the pan-Arabism wave across the Middle East.
A few weeks after he, Jordan and Syria lost land to Israel in the June 1967 war, the Arab summit convened in Khartoum. At that historic meeting, the famous "Three Nos" were announced by the leaders No Recognition of Israel, No Negotiations with it and No Settlement.
It called for a full Israeli withdrawal from historic Palestine. The Palestinian question was considered the central Arab issue.
"We were much stronger then, especially governing regimes. We were able to say no and lay conditions," says Bakri Awad Mulah, secretary general of Sudan's External Information Council, in charge of media policies. "Now, we have become too weak to say no," he told Gulf News in an interview.
As Sudan prepares to host Arab leaders, who will open a two-day summit tomorrow, its foreign minister, Lam Akol, a former rebel from the south, set the pace for the Arab peace position.
"Our support to the Palestinian cause will remain one of our major concerns," he told his Arab colleagues at Saturday's preparatory meeting. However, he made it clear that the Arabs have stuck by the Saudi peace initiative, offering Israel full normalisation of ties with Arab countries in return for withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 war.
The initiative, endorsed by the Arab Beirut summit in 2002, hardly resembles the famous three 'Nos'. Israel was looking for peace, then. The Arabs were not, says Mulah, who believes that Western powers managed to divide Arab states and occupy them with regional conflicts to the level they have become "too weak to be able to stand up" to their enemies.
Sudan is engaged in a civil war. Iraq is occupied by the United States. There has been a similar fear in Lebanon since the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Al Hariri. Terrorist activities are endemic in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and Yemen.
Meanwhile, democratisation and reform initiatives have become the main topic for most Arabs, analysts say. Arab public opinion awaits "three new positions but of a different type," says Kamal Hassan Bakhit, editor-in-chief of leading Sudanese daily Al Rai Al Aam, alluding to the 1967 summit resolution.
"Political reforms, economic integration and a pan-Arab council to address regional conflicts are most important issues," he says.
"Doors and windows must be opened wide" for civil society groups and non-governmental organisations, allowing them to function freely, Arab League chief Amr Mousa urged during Saturday's meeting. Thirty-nine years ago, "It was a different world," he says. "The Arabs should adapt," he says.
