US embassy cable - 04DJIBOUTI463

UNCLAS DJIBOUTI 000463 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KPAL, DJ 
SUBJECT: ARAB LEAGUE SUMMIT POSTPONED: DJIBOUTIAN PRESS 
COVERAGE 
 
 
1. (U) Immediately following the announcement of the 
postponement of the Arab League summit in Tunis, 
"La Nation," the official government newspaper, ran 
three articles of commentary in the Monday, March 29th 
edition. 
 
2. (U) The first article, on the front page of "La 
Nation," carried an immediate account from Tunis on the 
postponement of the Arab League summit.  The article 
stated facts, but had a few comments of disappointment 
sprinkled into the wording of the piece.  The article 
stated that Tunisia decided to postpone the summit due 
to differences of opinions concerning questions of 
democratic reform, protection of Human Rights, promotion 
of women's rights and the role of civil society.  The 
article quoted Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
Hatem Ben Salem, as saying that the Tunisian propositions 
for Arab reforms were "an affirmation of the value of 
tolerance, understanding and dialogue between 
civilizations while expressing categorical refusal of 
extremism, fanaticism, violence and terrorism."  Salem 
also alluded to the assassination of Sheik Yassin when 
he further expressed his "profound regret for the 
postponement of the summit from which the Arab world was 
expecting a lot especially in these delicate 
circumstances which the Arab world is going through and 
the deadlock in which the Palestinian cause is in after 
the latest dramatic developments."  The article went on 
to comment that Arab reforms and the Arab-Israeli 
conflict set off serious differences and deadlock in the 
preparatory meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. 
The article stated that some ministers were surprised and 
did not understand the decision, while others thought it 
was imperative to get beyond the differences and reach a 
convergence of opinion on the two main issues; the Arab 
reforms and the Arab-Israeli conflict. 
 
3. (U) The second article ran on page six, of ten, in 
the Arab World section of the paper.  The article stated 
that Tunisia decided to postpone the summit, "which 
seemed to get off to a bad start."  The reason cited 
for the postponement was the serious discord among the 
member countries on two of the main issues during 
preliminary planning meetings.  The preliminary meetings 
held Friday and Saturday were attended by the Ministers 
of Foreign Affairs for the member nations.  The article 
repeated many of the same facts from the front-page 
article, but elaborated that a large cause for the discord 
at the planning meetings stemmed from the "order of the 
day," the topic of relaunching of an Israeli-Palestinian 
peace initiative.  The article quoted Jordanian Minister 
of Foreign Affairs as saying that the Arabs must come to 
an agreement quickly on a date and location for the summit. 
 
4. (U) The third article, also in the Arab World section 
of the paper, repeated many of the same facts as the 
first two but was more of an in-depth look at the reasons 
the countries were unable to come to a consensus.  The 
article included several quotes from Ministers that were 
slanted against Tunisia for postponing the summit, saying 
that they made a unilateral decision.  The article also 
specifically stated that the assassination of Sheik Yassin 
rendered continuation of the peace initiative as 
"politically risky."  The article reported that general 
outcry from Syria and Libya over the mere inclusion of a 
proposed peace initiative and Arab League reforms made 
preparatory meetings "intense" and "turbulent."  The two 
countries were reported to comment that these two issues 
were not among Arab priorities.  The chief of the 
political department of the Palestinian Liberation 
Organization (PLO), Farouk Kaddoumi, was reported to be 
in line with the Syrians and Libyans to denounce the plan 
for reforms.  However, another Arab spokesperson was 
quoted as saying "The position expressed by Mr. Kaddoumi 
does not particularly represent the position of the 
Palestinian Authority, which is not opposed to the 
adoption of a plan for reform, but an acerbic critique 
of a Palestinian spokesperson against Egypt and Jordan 
for their ties with Israel."  An anonymous source is 
quoted as saying the representatives of these two 
countries insist on the "necessity to settle the 
Arab-Israeli conflict in its entirety." 
RAGSDALE