Arab Economic and Social Development meeting: A summit mired in controversy

Flags of the Arab league states are seen on display ahead of the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Beirut on Jan. 17. (AFP)
Updated 31 May 2019
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Arab Economic and Social Development meeting: A summit mired in controversy

  • Arab politicians and leaders are meeting in Beirut to discuss economic and social development
  • The meeting is overshadowed by disputes over Syria and Libya and a political crisis in Lebanon itself

BEIRUT: The plan was that heads of state from the Arab world would arrive in Beirut to discuss economic and social development. But like much in Lebanon at the moment, it did not go according to plan.

To begin with, only two heads of state — from Qatar and Mauritania — are attending the Arab Economic and Social Development summit. The meeting, which Lebanon had hoped would boost its sinking economic credentials as it struggles to form a government, has been mired in controversy for days.

Should Syria be invited? Yes, said Hezbollah and its political allies in Lebanon. No, said the Arab League.

Then a debate raged over whether Libya should receive an invitation, because of the unresolved mystery surrounding the disappearance of a Lebanese cleric in Libya four decades ago. In the end Libya boycotted the summit after Lebanese supporters of the cleric tore down a Libyan flag on a Beirut street.

Nevertheless, the summit’s media spokesman Rafic Chlala told Arab News: “The presidents who decided not to attend the summit have sent their delegates, which means the summit hasn’t failed, as some are trying to portray it.”

The delegates have much to discuss. According to the Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Houssam Zaki, there is no dispute about the items on the agenda.

They include “Arab food security, the development of an Arab Free Trade Zone, the completion of the requirements to establish the Arab Customs Union, the Arab strategy on Sustainable Development 2030, launching the work to establish the joint Arab electricity market, the strategic vision to promote and activate joint Arab work between the tourism and culture sectors in Arab states, managing solid waste in the Arab world and developing policies that deal with Arab women’s affairs and promotion of their capacities.”

The agenda also includes ”supporting the Palestinian economy and Arab strategy to protect children and promote technical and vocational education in the Arab world, and addressing the challenges facing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and their consequences  on the Palestinian refugees.”

The issues are supposed to be economic and social, but the fallout from the Syrian civil war will inevitably dominate. Discussions took place on Saturday about a proposed Lebanese addition to the final communique calling for “the dignified return of refugees to Syria.”

Minister of Economy Raed Khoury told Arab News: “Lebanon is demanding the encouragement of the safe return of refugees to the safe zones. Some countries were rooting for the ‘voluntary return,’ while some wanted to delete the whole paragraph, on the grounds that it is a political and not an economic matter that should be discussed during the next regular Arab summit that will be held in late March, in Tunisia.”

Lebanon is currently home to more than a million refugees, which is, according to Khoury, “a huge burden on the Lebanese economy and the social situation.”

During the summit, Lebanese President Michel Aoun is expected to launch an initiative on “the development of a funding structure to rebuild Arab states that have witnessed armed conflicts.”

The assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, Haifa Abou Ghazaleh, said: “The Beirut summit is very important as it is being held only few months before the World Sustainable Development Summit.

“Arab states have committed to implementing the 2030 sustainable development plan, with its economic, social and environmental aspects, and the Beirut summit provides an important opportunity to promote development in Arab states, by combining knowledge, youth and wealth.

“This combination gives the Arab community a great and strong chance for a new beginning, to shift toward knowledge economies. This is what we are all seeking, to build a knowledge society, turning the massive capacities, natural resources, human potential and knowledge-based wealth in the region into a base to develop social integration and cohesion, in order to reach sustainable development that will promote Arabs’ wellbeing.”

The discussions of the Arab Civil Society Forum in Beirut, which preceded the summit, indicated that the “Arab region is witnessing the highest levels in income inequality around the world, where 10 percent of its population is making 61 percent of the total income, while half of the population is only making 10 percent of it, despite the wealth of resources in the region.”

The forum called on Sunday’s summit to “adopt economic and social policies to reduce inequality in all its forms through the redistribution of wealth.”

According to the Arab League, “a strategic framework developed by the Council of Arab Ministers for Social Affairs, regarding  the elimination of multidimensional poverty” will be suggested at the summit.




Lebanese President Michel Aoun is expected to launch an initiative on reconstruction in Arab states affected by armed conflict. (AFP)

The League estimates that the number of poor people in Arab states reached 116 million in 2014.

While the issues are weighty, the view on the Beirut street is unconvinced. “Lebanon is the king of missed opportunities,” Jihad Jrab, a bank manager told Arab News. “We had the opportunity of making our image look better, especially in these trying times, so that these visiting leaders would come and give the proper attention needed to the citizens of this country. It was evident that they did all they can to not gain
this attention.”

Bassam Jrab, Jihad’s cousin and an engineer in Lebanon, said: “In order to attract people to invest in the country you need to present a solid front … to show that there is security, that there is a working government, and a respectable presidency. 

 “You have a president who invited a country to attend the summit, then an employee of the government comes and forbids it from happening, what message does this convey? That there is a strong president? Or a chair’s leg?”

Lebanon has invested $10 million in hosting the summit, with an increase in security staff and the closure of streets, schools and public institutions. Nevertheless, many Lebanese questioned the country’s ability to host the summit, after eight months without a government and a looming economic crisis. Over the past couple of weeks, two storms hit the country, tore apart its infrastructure and left refugee camps flooded.

“They spend all this money on hosting a summit, while our homes are getting flooded and roads being pulled apart by these storms. Wouldn’t it be better to use the money to help the citizens?” shop-owner Omar Itani said.

There was frustration on social media. “I wish one day you [politicians] would think about the country’s benefit and see how to rescue what’s left of our dignity,” Hayat Gharzeddine tweeted. “Shame on you, such an embarrassment.”

Others were openly apathetic. “I don’t even know what the summit is about,” film maker Sandra Tabet said. “I’ve asked so many people and no one really seems to know or care.”


Palestinian official says Israeli forces killed West Bank teen with US citizenship

Updated 07 April 2025
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Palestinian official says Israeli forces killed West Bank teen with US citizenship

  • Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids on Bedouin villages and encampments, has intensified since the Gaza war began in October 2023

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian official told AFP that Israeli forces shot dead a teenager holding US citizenship in the occupied West Bank Sunday, while the Israeli military said it had killed a “terrorist” who threw rocks at cars.
Omar Muhammad Saadeh Rabee, a 14-year-old “who was killed in Turmus Ayya, held US citizenship,” the town’s mayor, Lafi Shalabi, told AFP.
The Israeli military said that during “counter-terrorism activity” in Turmus Ayya, “soldiers identified three terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving.”
“The soldiers opened fire toward the terrorists who were endangering civilians, eliminating one terrorist and hitting two additional terrorists,” a military statement added.
The Palestinian health ministry said one person was in critical condition and another suffered minor injuries in the same incident.
Shalabi said one of the wounded also had US citizenship. And Turmus Ayya, northest of the main West Bank city of Ramallah, is known for having many dual US-Palestinian citizens.
The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams had taken the body of the deceased boy to a hospital. It also reported the injuries of two boys shot in the lower abdomen and thigh respectively, during “clashes” in Turmus Ayya.
One of the two, 14-year-old Abdul Rahman Shehadeh, told AFP he was shot by a soldier while collecting fruit near the town.
The second, who was shot in the abdomen, was identified as 14-year-old Ayoub Asaad by his father Ahed Asaad. He confirmed that the boy had a US passport.
Ahed Assad said that an ambulance that took his wounded son to hospital was stopped by soldiers.
“We were stopped at a military checkpoint at the village entrance, and a soldier told me that he was the one who shot the three boys,” he told AFP.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign affairs ministry denounced the Israeli forces’ “use of live fire against three children.”
“Israel’s continued impunity as an illegal occupying power encourages it to commit further crimes,” it added.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since the Gaza war started on October 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 918 Palestinians, including militants, in the West Bank since then, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 33 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since 1967.
 

 


Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities, Israel issues evacuation orders in Gaza

Updated 07 April 2025
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Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities, Israel issues evacuation orders in Gaza

  • Israel’s Channel 12 television said at least 12 lightly injured people have been treated as a result of the rocket firing from Gaza, quoting officials at the Bazilai Hospital in Ashkelon

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Palestinian militant group Hamas said it fired a barrage of rockets at cities in Israel’s south on Sunday in response to Israeli “massacres” of civilians in Gaza.
Israel’s military said about 10 projectiles were fired, but most were successfully intercepted. Israel’s Channel 12 reported a direct hit in the southern city of Ashkelon.
Israeli emergency services said they were treating one person for shrapnel injuries, and teams were en route to locations of fallen rockets. Smashed car windows and debris lay strewn on a city street, videos disseminated by Israeli emergency services showed.
Meanwhile, Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes killed at least 39 people across the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Shortly after the rocket firing, the Israeli military posted on X a new evacuation order, instructing residents of several districts in Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip to leave their areas, citing earlier rocket firing.
“This is a final warning before the attack,” the military warning statement said.
Later, it said it struck the rocket launcher from which projectiles were launched earlier from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a flight to Washington for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, was briefed on the rocket attack by his Defense Minister, Israel Katz.
A statement issued by his office said Netanyahu instructed that a “vigorous” response be carried out and approved the continuation of intensive activity by the Israeli military against Hamas.
Israel’s Channel 12 television said at least 12 lightly injured people have been treated as a result of the rocket firing from Gaza, quoting officials at the Bazilai Hospital in Ashkelon.
The first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force on January 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.
However, Israel said on March 19 that its forces resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip. Both parties blamed one another for a stalemate in the ceasefire talks.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Palestinian officials say. Israel began its offensive after thousands of Hamas-led gunmen attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

 


Syria’s president to visit Turkiye and UAE next week

Updated 07 April 2025
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Syria’s president to visit Turkiye and UAE next week

  • Sharaa and other members of the new Syrian leadership have been working to strengthen ties with both Arab and Western leaders following the fall of Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive in December, led by Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham

BEIRUT: Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa will make his first visit to the United Arab Emirates and is also scheduled to visit Turkiye next week, the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday, as he continues to garner support for the new administration.
Sharaa, who previously visited Turkiye in February, will make the UAE his second Gulf destination after traveling to
Saudi Arabia that same month on his first foreign trip since assuming the presidency in January.
He and other members of the new Syrian leadership have been working to strengthen ties with both Arab and Western leaders following the fall of Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive in December, led by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.
Sharaa and his officials have also called for a full lifting of sanctions on Syria.
Syria is in desperate need of sanctions relief to kick start an economy collapsed by nearly 14 years of war, during which the United States, the UK and Europe placed tough sanctions on people, businesses and whole sectors of Syria’s economy in a bid to squeeze now-ousted leader Assad.

 


Moroccans protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza and take aim at Trump

Updated 07 April 2025
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Moroccans protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza and take aim at Trump

  • Moroccan authorities tolerate most protests, but have arrested some activists who have rallied in front of businesses or foreign embassies or implicated the monarchy in their complaints
  • More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed as part of Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants

RABAT, Morocco: Tens of thousands of Moroccans on Sunday protested Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza, putting fury toward US President Donald Trump near the center of their grievances.
In the largest protest Morocco has seen in months, demonstrators denounced Israel, the United States and their own government. Some stepped on Israeli flags, held banners showing slain Hamas leaders and waved posters juxtaposing Trump alongside displaced Palestinians fleeing their homes.
Organizers condemned Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since Israel renewed air and ground strikes last month, aimed at pressuring Hamas to release remaining hostages.

Women lift a banner during a national march in support of Palestinians and against Morocco's normalisation of ties with Israel, in the capital Rabat on April 6, 2025. (AFP)

Such protests have erupted across the Middle East and North Africa, where leaders typically worry about demonstrations undermining domestic stability. Pro-Palestinian rallies were also staged this weekend in the capitals of Tunisia and Yemen as well as in Morocco’s most populous city Casablanca.
In countries that have historically aligned with the US, anti-Trump backlash has emerged as a theme. Demonstrators in Rabat on Sunday condemned his proposal to displace millions of Palestinians to make way for the redevelopment of Gaza. as well as the US efforts to pursue pro-Palestinian activists.
Still, many Moroccans said they saw Trump’s policies as mostly consistent with his predecessor, Joe Biden’s.
“(Trump) has made the war worse,” said Mohammed Toussi, who traveled from Casablanca with his family to protest.
“Biden hid some things but Trump has shown it all,” he added, likening their positions but not their messaging.
Protesters, Toussi said, remain angry about Morocco’s 2020 decision to normalize ties with Israel.
Abdelhak El Arabi, an adviser to Morocco’s former Islamist prime minister, said the reasons Moroccans were protesting had grown throughout the war. He predicted popular anger would continue until the war ends.
“It’s not a war, Gaza is getting erased from the earth,” the 62-year-old Tamesna resident said.
Demonstrations have included a range of groups, including the Islamist association al Adl Wal Ihsan. Moroccan authorities tolerate most protests, but have arrested some activists who have rallied in front of businesses or foreign embassies or implicated the monarchy in their complaints.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. Most have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed as part of Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. The war has left most of Gaza in ruins, and at its height displaced around 90 percent of the population.

 


Sudan activists sound alarm on ‘catastrophic’ situation in besieged Darfur city

Updated 06 April 2025
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Sudan activists sound alarm on ‘catastrophic’ situation in besieged Darfur city

  • According to UN estimates, around two million people face extreme food insecurity in North Darfur state, with 320,000 already suffering famine conditions

KHARTOUM: Civilians trapped in Sudan’s El-Fasher city are facing “catastrophic” conditions, activists warned on Sunday, with their situation rapidly deteriorating amid a months-long paramilitary siege.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have taken most of the vast Darfur region in their war against the regular army since April 2023, but El-Fasher in North Darfur remains the only regional state capital the RSF has not conquered.
A local advocacy group, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, said in a statement that residents “bear the brunt of artillery shelling” and live “with the sounds of aircraft and their terrifying and deadly missiles, in addition to the daily suffering of hunger, disease and drought.”
Life in El-Fasher and other areas of Darfur “has come to a complete standstill,” the group said, with no food at markets and a “complete halt” in humanitarian aid.
There was a sharp rise in prices of basic commodities and “a severe shortage in cash,” it added, warning of an “unprecedented and catastrophic deterioration” in already dire conditions in and around El-Fasher.
The RSF-aligned armed group Sudan Liberation Army called on Saturday for civilians in El-Fasher and the nearby displacement camps of Abu Shouk and Zamzan to leave, warning of an “escalation of military operations.”
Another RSF ally, the Gathering of Sudan Liberation Forces, said it was ready to “provide safe corridors” for residents to leave and head to “liberated areas” under paramilitary control.
In late March, the RSF announced its fighters had seized Al-Malha, which lies at the foot of a mountainous region 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of El-Fasher.
Al-Malha is one of the northernmost towns in the vast desert region between Sudan and Libya, where the RSF’s critical resupply lines have come under increasing attack in recent months by army-allied groups.
The war has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises. More than 12 million people have been uprooted, tens of thousands killed and a UN-backed assessment declared famine in parts of the country.
According to UN estimates, around two million people face extreme food insecurity in North Darfur state, with 320,000 already suffering famine conditions.
Zamzam is one of three displacement camps around El-Fasher hit by famine, which a UN-backed assessment says is expected to spread to five more areas including the state capital itself by May.