The League failed to make progress on last year's Saudi proposal to establish an all-Arab, multinational force in response to Iran's aggressive policies in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria. It also made no progress toward developing a unified anti-terrorist agenda to confront the challenge of Iran or radical Islamic terrorism, which threaten the very existence of their regimes.
The most significant aspect of this year's conference was downgrading the Palestinian issue.
When the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine representative hectored delegates for not making the Palestinian people the overriding issue that should unite all Arabs, he was ignored.
Hamas also said in frustration that the summit “reflects the status of decline which the Arabs are suffering, even at the official level.”
Ironically, the only commentator on the summit who believed that the Palestinian issue remains paramount in Arab minds was the French Consul General in Jerusalem, Herv Magro, who droned that “the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is the central issue in the Middle East.”
