Morocco Knows Best
King Mohammed VI of Morocco announced today that he would not be attending any Arab summits on Israel’s offensive in Gaza because “they will not do much to help the Palestinian people.”
A number of Arab states have been waffling over holding a summit in Qatar, demonstrating the deep rift amongst Arab states over how to deal with the crisis in Gaza. The Moroccan statement also stated: “It is distressing that these underlying disagreements tend to push the crucial interests of the (Arab) nation into the background, especially the Palestinian cause.”
In addition to Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait have all refused to attend the Doha summit; the Arab League is still one country shy of the 15-member quorum required by Arab League rules. (Related: Lots of Arab bloggers are pretty pissed about the whole thing)
Nimr posted earlier about Morocco’s closure of its embassy in Venezuela, a result of “increasing hostility” toward Morocco from Venezuela over Morocco’s occupation of the Western Sahara (no other country recognizes the Western Sahara as Moroccan).
Watch Morocco take advantage of the world’s inattention as they focus on pushing their autonomy proposal…
I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but part of me thinks this all about Qatar. The other Arab states are so petty that they get annoyed at Qatar’s recently (hyper-)activity with diplomacy on the world stage.
How would the foreign ministers face their leaders if there is another press bulletin about a peace plan or grand proposal orchestrated by the Qataris?
Just a little theory of mine.