Arab League

Qatar's leader embraced Sudan's president in a red-carpet welcome as he arrived to attend an Arab summit in an act of defiance against an international warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes in Darfur. For host Qatar, a key U.S. ally, the Arab League meeting starting today also showcases its desire to stake out a prominent role in regional affairs. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir had promised to attend the 22-nation gathering after assurances from members that they would not enforce the International Criminal Court's arrest order issued March 4. Only Jordan and two other tiny Arab League members, the Comoros and Djibouti, are party to the ICC charter, and they can take no action on Qatari soil.

The 22 members of the Arab League committed themselves Wednesday to fighting terrorism, by signing an accord designed to ensure that their governments will not tolerate or give support to groups or individuals mounting terrorist attacks in other Arab countries. "This treaty will allow Arab countries to shatter the networks of terrorism . . .

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Kadafi is rarely dull, whether creating the "Great Man-Made River" to bring water across 1,000 miles of desert or offering to procure a lawyer for President Clinton in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal. But even given his predilection for the bizarre, the dictator, who is beginning his 30th year in power, caught many of the world's Arabs by surprise last month by proclaiming that he had given up on them.

A move by the 22 members of the Arab League to freeze relations with Israel and reactivate an economic boycott of the Jewish state was a message to Israelis that they should reconsider a government that is leading the region into danger, Arab diplomats said Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted sharply to the Arab League resolution adopted at a two-day meeting in Cairo.

Barely a month has passed since Israelis and Palestinians broke off peace talks, and already Israel is beginning to feel political and economic costs. Arab countries renewed their call for an economic boycott of Israel. Oman postponed a planned opening of an interest section in Israel and denied Israeli diplomats routine visas to the Persian Gulf state.

Angered by the settlement policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Arab countries on Sunday moved to freeze relations with the Jewish state in a sharp symbolic rebuke that could mean a major reversal of Israel's hard-won diplomatic gains of the past several years.

A U.S.-backed effort to isolate Syria by prodding Middle East leaders to boycott this year's Arab League summit prompted a lot of no-shows Saturday but will ultimately fail to weaken Damascus' alliances with Iran and militant groups, officials and analysts here said. Only 12 of the 22 Arab League members sent heads of state to the conference, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt represented by minor officials and Lebanon sending no one.

Iraq refused to endorse the final declaration of the Arab summit Sunday because it did not condemn terrorism in the country, a divisive end to a gathering marred by disputes and boycotts. Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has long accused Sunni Arab-led governments of not taking a strong enough stance against Sunni fighters who made up the backbone of Iraq's insurgency.

Arab foreign ministers at an emergency meeting here urged warring Lebanese factions to immediately cease fighting and said Sunday that they would send a delegation to try to broker a settlement between the Hezbollah-led opposition and U.S.-backed government. Government supporters and opponents battled with rockets and machine guns in the mountains overlooking the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The Arab League's statement in Cairo implicitly criticized the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah.

Bush administration attempts to revive Arab-Israeli peace talks suffered a setback Wednesday as leaders at an Arab League summit here, including the heads of state of several U.S. allies, condemned Washington's foreign policy and refused to budge on a peace proposal that Israeli officials have criticized.