BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called on Arab leaders to form a joint task force to work on establishing one Arab stance towards major issues in the region.
“The problem is that we have forgotten that uniqueness and initiative still exist, that what unites Arabs much greater than what separates them, and that success is still possible,” Siniora said at the 13th summit of the Arab Thought Foundation in Morocco last week, according to remarks made available Sunday.
Titled “Arab complementation: the dream of unity and the reality of division,” the conference gathered officials and intellectuals from Arab countries to discuss the validity of Arabism in the contemporary context.
“We can midwife success from the womb of failure, and excellence can be achieved despite the murkiness of the dark,” the head of the Future parliamentary bloc added.
Siniora called for the creation of one Arab committee responsible for reactivating the Arab Peace Initiative that was once active in seeking an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Such committee, he said, would allow the various nations to agree on one position and action plan on the matter.
Arabs should learn from the European experience and establish a union based on common values, but they first need to agree on a set of principles that respect democracy, liberty and human rights, he added.
Religious moderation and reform in religious thought was also highlighted as an inevitable characteristic of an Arab union.
He presented a historical profile of Arabism and focused on the moments of failure, but stressed that strategic military and economic cooperation are as important now as they ever were.
“Complementation should not be merely economic, but should also be militarily strategic, cultural and social,” Siniora said, reminding of an article he had co-written with former Arab League President Amrou Moussa in which they suggest the creation of a joint Arab force to restore peace in Yemen.
Siniora said the heaviest challenges facing Arab unity was the “Israeli colonization” of Palestinian land and the “Iranian penetration” into Arab countries’ internal affairs. The remaining totalitarian regimes and the rise of fundamentalism, he added, are also among the biggest threats to the success of an Arabist project.
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