“Yasser Arafat decided to bow out of this week’s Arab summit on Tuesday, a senior Palestinian official announced, hours after Israel’s prime minister imposed more conditions on the Palestinian leader’s travels. The announcement by Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said only that Arafat had decided not to take part in the summit that starts Wednesday in Beirut—a gathering that is expected to take up a Saudi peace overture.”
Shibley Telhami, Middle East expert and Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, was online to discuss the Arab summit.
Telhami is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has also been a council member for several foreign relation advisory committees such as the American Delegation of Israeli-Palestinian-American Anti-Incitement Committee and the committee of Human Rights Watch/Middle East. He has taught at several universities including Princeton University, Columbia University, and the University of California at Berkeley where he received his doctorate in political science.
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Commentary
Arab Summit
March 27, 2002