Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...four days statesmen representing the 21 members of the Arab League had argued, cajoled and bargained as they tried to work out their differences in the meeting rooms and corridors of the luxurious Plaza Hotel in Amman. Finally, tired but triumphant, King Hussein of Jordan took the podium at the closing ceremony to proclaim that the 15th summit of the league had produced nothing less than a "new birth" of Arab unity. The Jordanian monarch could be forgiven a bit of rhetorical excess. For while deep divisions in the Arab world remained, Hussein had indeed produced a remarkable and unexpected...
...Syrian turnaround became clear with the release of the summit's final communique, in which the assembled sheiks, princes and Presidents unanimously condemned Iran, which Syria has backed in the seven-year Iran-Iraq war. The members of the Arab League, the declaration says, "voiced their indignation at the Iranian regime's intransigence, provocations and threats to the Arab gulf states" and "denounced the bloody, criminal acts" of the Iranians who rioted last summer in the holy city of Mecca...
Just as startling was the assembled leaders' decision to rescind the pariah status of Egypt, which was suspended from the Arab League in 1979 after signing its peace treaty with Israel. While Syria vetoed the re-entry of its archrival into the league, the communique declared that re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Egypt "is a sovereign matter to be decided by each state." Within days, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Kuwait had all renewed relations, and at least four other states were expected to follow suit...
What inspired Syria's change of heart? According to summit participants, Assad concluded he could no longer remain aloof from the Arab world. Sentiment among the Arab leaders overwhelmingly favored pressuring Iran to end the war, and Assad apparently felt he had to move with the tide, putting at risk the millions of tons of free and subsidized oil that Iran has provided his country as a reward for his support. As for Egypt, the participants were eager to mend relations with the Arab world's most populous and powerful state so that Cairo's 450,000-man army could...
Though the U.S. bombardment of Iranian oil platforms raised new fears, it received quiet backing from the Arab gulf states and more vocal support from West European allies and even from Congress, where the Senate has been eager to enhance Congress's role in deciding gulf policy. One senior Pentagon officer said the attack on the oil platforms, though seen by some of his colleagues as too mild, was "as much as we could do to the Iranians while doing the least possible to the Congress." The Senate passed a resolution supporting the retaliation by a 92-to-1 vote...