Arab world realises urgency in tackling crises, says Jordan FM

DeAD SeA: Arab leaders “realise the urgency” of tackling long-running regional crises, from war to high unemployment, Jordan’s foreign minister said after chairing a meeting of his counterparts from the region.

Ayman Safadi said he and his colleagues endorsed more than a dozen policy resolutions, including several on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that are to be adopted today by heads of state of the 22-member Arab League at their annual gathering.

The summit, hosted this year by Jordan, comes at a time when festering crises have “led to an erosion in the level of trust that people have in the regional Arab order, in the Arab League,” Safadi said. “So there is a realisation of that, of the difficulty.”

Despite calls for unity, Arab League member states remain divided on key issues, including the six-year-old civil war in Syria.

The league suspended Syria in 2011, several months after a popular uprising against President Bashar Assad that quickly turned into a brutal civil war. Assad hasn’t been invited to a summit since then, and Arab League member states disagree on his political fate, if any, if fighting ends one day.

Regional power house Saudi Arabia, led by King Salman, supports the Syrian opposition, while Egypt, fearful of Islamic militants among the rebels’ ranks, has pushed for a political solution that might keep Assad in power.

The Saudi monarch arrived in Jordan on Monday to a lavish airport welcome before being greeted by Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

The two monarchs are to sign several bilateral agreements during Salman’s visit. — AP