Jordan faces tough path ahead as next Arab summit host

Arab League summits have a poor track record of success, usually underlining rifts rather than accord. Thus, under normal circumstances, the convening of the Arab summit in Amman on March 29 would be a less-than-ordinary event. These, however, are not even normal times for the region. The annual meeting of the heads of the 22 member states had originally been scheduled for Yemen, but that has been precluded by the bloody civil war raging there with no end in sight. King Abdullah II offered in October to change the venue to his capital.

The last time Amman hosted an Arab summit was in June 2001, a few months before the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks on the United States and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. For further perspective, it was nearly two years before the invasion of Iraq and nearly a decade before the eruption of the Arab Spring. In those days, summit resolutions were predictable: condemnation of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands and meek criticism of Washington’s use of its veto power in the Security Council against a draft resolution to allow UN monitors to operate in the occupied territories.