Arab summit in Tunisia to expose rifts, also unity on Golan

Arab leaders meeting in Tunisia on Sunday hope to project unified opposition to the Trump administration's acceptance of Israeli control over the Golan Heights and Jerusalem, but as with past Arab League summits, the gathering is likely to expose their own bitter rivalries.

Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are likely to tone down any statement of condemnation, eager to maintain good relations with the White House as it cranks up pressure on their main rival, Iran.

Affirming the international consensus that the Golan is occupied Syrian land would only further highlight Syria's absence from the Arab League, from which it was expelled in the early days of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Some Arab leaders think Syria a founding member should be readmitted. Others, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have spent years supporting the insurgency.

Arab League summits are nearly always marred by no-shows. This year, Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir will skip the meeting as they contend with weekly mass protests against their long reigns.

Those expected to attend, meanwhile, are still split over the wars in Yemen and Syria, and the nearly two-year boycott of Qatar by fellow Arab League members.

Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war after Syria had for years used the strategic plateau to shell northern Israel.

Arab states have long demanded its return, and condemned US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over it earlier this week.

Arab League spokesman Mahmoud Afifi said the 22-member bloc would aim to issue a proclamation on the Golan, but experts expect little more than a standard denunciation.

"It will be just a very strong, theatrical, nice, maybe strong statement," said Ahmed Abd Rabou, a visiting professor of international affairs at the University of Denver.

"But I doubt that this will have a true political effect."
But Mahmoud Khemiri, a spokesman for the summit, said Assad's reintegration "isn't foreseeable at the current time."