DOHA, QATAR, AND BEIRUT — The global economic crisis is set to plunge a Middle East already reeling from war and extremism into further chaos, the ruler of Qatar cautioned other national leaders and diplomats Monday at the annual Arab League summit.
Sheik Hamad ibn Khalifa al Thani, emir of the tiny but increasingly influential kingdom of Qatar, brushed aside squabbles among Arab states to warn that the world economic crisis would strike a hard blow to the volatile Middle East.
"Our Arab world was among the most vulnerable regions in the world," Khalifa told the dignitaries assembled in Doha, the capital of his oil- and natural-gas-rich Persian Gulf state.
"The impact of this problem of lack of confidence has affected the Arab world more than others," he said. "Given its location and resources, its issues and problems and its previous and subsequent conditions, the Arab world is in the direction of the wind and the eye of the storm."
Economic gloom hung over the summit, often a pageant of decorum and flowery rhetoric where substantive issues are superseded by petty rivalries.
The Arab leaders called on Israel to accept a 2002 Saudi peace initiative offering the Jewish state diplomatic recognition in exchange for an independent Palestinian state.
"The peace initiative being proposed today will not be on offer for a long time," they said in a statement issued Monday. "Arab commitment to this initiative is dependent on Israeli acceptance."
Arab leaders also voiced support for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who attended the summit in defiance of an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest on charges related to the counterinsurgency in Sudan's Darfur region.
The summit has been replete with the side dramas that characterize most gatherings of Arab leaders.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak skipped the summit, apparently upset that Qatar has been stealing the diplomatic limelight. Jordan's King Abdullah II left early, reportedly because he was received at the airport by a member of the Qatari royal family instead of the emir. Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi stormed out after calling Saudi King Abdullah a dupe of Britain and the U.S.
Amid the recriminations, the summit ended Monday, a day earlier than scheduled.
