Arab kings, Egypt block Iran at summit on Israel

Eliyahu Tulshinski

November 12, 2023

Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi came to an Arab League summit on Saturday seeking a joint declaration of support for actions to undermine Israel during its war against the Hamas Islamic organization. Instead, host country Saudi Arabia diluted the voting power of Iran and her allies, ensuring the failure of the Iranian initiatives.

Disappointment

Raisi used this first visit by an Iranian leader to Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh in eleven years to push Arab League members to adopt a 10-point plan in support of Hamas. He expected a vote in favor of his proposals in the first of two back-to-back summits to be held in Riyadh. Unexpectedly, though, the meeting of the 22-nation Arab League was merged into that of the 51-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), where Iran has less influence. The larger OIC then tabled the main initiatives of the pro-Hamas bloc.

The Guardian reported that, while OIC members were able to come to an agreement on opposing Israel's attempt to destroy Hamas, they failed to adopt the “practical steps” pushed in Iran's 10-point plan, such as an oil embargo or the severing of ties with Israel:

The final OIC communique, however, was long on condemnation and demands for an immediate ceasefire, but short on practical steps to help Hamas. . . .

The lengthy statement made no mention of a ban on oil sales, a tactic used in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the severance of diplomatic relations with Israel or the arming of the Palestinians. All three proposals had been advanced by Raisi in a 10-point plan he presented to the conference. [Emphases added].

According to commentator Tom Nash, the summit leaders attempted to portray cohesion among the member nations when, in reality, a drama unfolded behind closed doors. Not only were the above measures blocked, but the seven hold-out nations also rejected Iranian initiatives to prevent U.S. bases in Arab nations from arming Israel and to close Arab airspace to Israel.

Egypt against “chaos”

Egypt is one of the nations that opposed Iran's 10-point plan. The largest Arab nation, Egypt has been ruled by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since 2013 when, as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, he helped overthrow the government led by President Mohamed Morsi. A member of the once banned Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi was accused of usurping so many government powers that he was essentially becoming a modern day "pharaoh."

Morsi was then tried for supporting the revolutionary activities of Hamas, which Brotherhood operative Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded as the “Brotherhood’s political arm in Gaza.” The Egyptian prosecutor in Morsi's case accused him of working with both Hamas and Hezbollah to destabilize the region.

Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered Wednesday the referral of former president Mohamed Morsi along with several prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood to criminal court for charges of espionage.

The announcement came in a statement by the prosecutor general under the title “The Biggest Case of Espionage in the History of Egypt.” . . .

The statement added that the prosecutor general’s investigations had shown the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood to be “the reason behind violence inside Egypt to create a state of ultimate chaos.”

The statement listed the Brotherhood’s alleged accomplices in “a plot” organised with the aid of several foreign organisations such as: the Islamic resistance movement of Hamas, which it called “the military arm of the Muslim Brotherhood international organisation”; Hezbollah in Lebanon which it said “has strong ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard”; amongst other extremist jihadist groups inside and outside the country.

The prosecutor noted the key role played by the tunnel system in Gaza in furthering the Brotherhood's revolutionary activities:

The prosecutor general added that the investigations uncovered that some members of the Brotherhood received military and media training in Gaza, which they had reached via secret tunnels.

The objective of this military training, he said, was to return to Sinai to join other jihadists to “implement their training”. The alleged media training, meanwhile, was aimed at manipulating public opinion “to serve the agenda of the international organisation [of the Brotherhood], which has opened channels with the west through Qatar and Turkey,” the statement added. [Emphases added].

Ultimately, Morsi and 528 fellow Brotherhood members were sentenced to death, though Morsi died in custody before his execution date. Since then, Egypt has continued to crack down on the Brotherhood and the Hamas tunnel network near the Egyptian border with Gaza.

Kings for stability

The other Arab nations who opposed Iran's plan include UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, and Sudan. Other than Sudan, each of these nations is ruled by a king or a constitutional monarchy. Their opposition to Hamas “chaos” is consistent with the research of Wharton School professor Mauro Guillen. Guillen explains that monarchies have an interest in long term stability:

Monarchies tend to be dynasties, and therefore have a long-term focus. If you focus on the long run, you are bound to be more protective of property rights. You’re more likely to put term limits on politicians that want to abuse [their powers]. [Emphases added].

The professor adds that the stability of strong property right protections spurs investment and economic growth.

[T]he long-term effects of monarchies are good for the economy and the standard of living . . . over the 110 years between 1900 and 2010, monarchies had a better record than republics in protecting property rights of businesses and individuals. . . .

Why exactly are property rights so important? “The form of government has an immediate, direct effect on the protection of property rights,” Guillen said.

When companies and individuals feel confident that their property rights — including intellectual property — will not be abused or confiscated by the government, they are more willing to invest in the economy, create more jobs and generate other economic boosters, he explained. [Emphases added].

Jordan in particular

Jordan's King Abdullah is perhaps the most vulnerable of the Arab kings, being the leader of the Hashemite clan ruling over a majority non-Hashemite population. His nation also borders the so called “West Bank” in which the revolutionary PLO has set up hundreds of terror cells. The king's father, in fact, had to send his army to surround and shell his own cities in 1970 to put down a PLO uprising after the group called for his overthrow and blew up hijacked planes on Jordanian soil.

In a further demonstration of the chasm between revolutionary Arab states and monarchies, Syria, a police state ruled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party since 1963, sent 10,000 Syrian soldiers into Jordan to fight along side the Marxist PLO, only to be driven back by the kingdom's forces.

The behind the scenes “drama” at the Riyadh summit represents the latest manifestation of this conflict between revolutionaries and Egyptian backed monarchies within the Arab world.

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