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Arab Summit Abruptly Falls Apart

(Los Angeles Times) - The Tunisian government abruptly called off a summit of the Arab League Saturday even as leaders arrived for meetings scheduled to begin Monday. In the days leading up to the summit, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah and the top members of Bahrain's ruling family decided to skip the meeting. Soon the heads of Oman and the United Arab Emirates followed suit. Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Qatar, and Tunisia had presented their own papers on reform, and Arab leaders had reportedly squabbled during summit preparations over whose reform model to adopt. A spokesman for Tunisia's Foreign Ministry said, "It became clear that there was a variance of positions on...proposals related to fundamental issues on modernization, democratic reform, human rights, and the rights of women."
2004-03-29 00:00:00
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