Arabs disinvited

last updated 8 January 2015

Tunis

Tunisia has abruptly canceled the long-planned Arab League summit it was supposed to host this week. Two days before the summit was to start, foreign ministers, who were in Tunis hammering out the agenda, were suddenly told to go home. Tunisian President Zine Abidine Ben Ali was reportedly annoyed that the Arabs had refused to take up his reform proposals, which included an endorsement of democracy and a condemnation of terrorism. Syria and Saudi Arabia were firmly opposed to the inclusion of the word “democracy,” and Egypt didn’t want to set a deadline for political change. “Not only is the concept of democracy absent,” said the Tunisian government in a statement, “so are other equally important ones, like civil society, cultural dialogue, and the fight against terrorism.”