Amr Moussa, 74, is the tough, affable, plain-speaking secretary-general of the League of Arab States. The post of Arab League secretary-general is, therefore, not a comfortable one. Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister of Egypt, has occupied it since May 2001. He has done his best in difficult circumstances but, much of the time, his has been a voice crying in the wilderness. This was clear in Paris last Monday when he addressed a large audience at the Academie Internationale Diplomatique, a French think-tank presided over by the Agha Khan. There could be little dispute with what he had to say, although much of the time his remarks clashed with the harsh realities of international politics. The long-running Arab-Israeli conflict was, inevitably, a main focus of Amr Moussa's speech. Although he pleaded for US President Barack Obama to be given more time to pursue his vision of peace, he warned that failure was “round the corner.” He railed bitterly against the notion of “conflict management” – the over-modest goal of much American diplomacy in recent decades. The time had come, he urged, for “conflict resolution.” His main message was that the whole international community had now to be engaged in the search for a settlement. The Arab-Israeli conflict had to be taken back to the United Nations, to be dealt with by the Security Council under Chapter VII. (This is the Chapter which allows the Security Council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take appropriate action to “restore peace and security.”) Amr Moussa had no doubt that Israel's assault on Gaza a year ago was an “act of aggression”, and that its steady settlement expansion was destroying the possibility of a two-state solution. But who would lobby for the conflict to be taken to the Security Council? Who would take the lead? Which state or group of states would seize the initiative? On these crucial questions, Amr Moussa was silent. He was firm, however, in stating that Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, was right to refuse to re-enter negotiations with Israel – as the US and Israel were urging – so long as Israel continued to change the demography and the political geography of the occupied territories. How could one negotiate, he asked, when the map of the territories was changing by the day? “I support negotiations,” he added, “but not if Israel continues to make changes on the ground.” (Nevertheless, Abbas is reported to be studying a US, proposal to engage in “proximity talks” with Israel, no doubt under American mediation.) Amr Moussa was hopeful that Hamas and Fatah would eventually reach agreement allowing Palestinian elections to take place in the summer. He called on the factions to put an end to their divisions, which were harmful to the Palestine cause. “Palestinian reconciliation must take place. It is possible,” he declared. Some European countries were making discrete contact with Hamas. But he condemned the West for failing to recognize the results of the 2006 Palestinian elections, which had brought Hamas to power in Gaza. The Arab Peace Initiative was still alive, he affirmed. It offered Israel recognition, normalization and an end to the conflict. “We are ready to implement our side of the deal, but Israel has never offered peace.” When Amr Moussa was asked what he thought of the metal barrier which Egypt was sinking deep into the ground along its border with Gaza – and which threatens to tighten further Israel's siege of the territory – he replied that “the Rafah crossing (between Egypt and Gaza) should be open as a rule, rather than an exception. Palestinians must be allowed to move in and out.” There is as yet no sign that the Egyptian government shares his view. In striking opposition to America's current efforts to impose harsh sanctions on Iran, and to arm US allies in the Gulf against a possible Iranian attack, Amr Moussa pleaded for an altogether different approach. “The Arabs should talk to Iran,” he urged. “We must work together to solve our problems.” A regional security structure was required in which Iran would play its part. Iran held powerful political cards, he said. It was an ancient civilization which rightly demanded its place in the sun. The Arabs had no wish to see a nuclear-capable Iran, but they were totally opposed to aggression against Iran by Israel or the United States. He denounced the “explicit double standards” with which the US and some of its allies approached the Iranian nuclear problem. To single out Iran and ignore Israel's nuclear arsenal was a grave mistake. What the Arabs wanted was a Middle East totally free of nuclear weapons. Amr Moussa recognized that Al-Qaeda posed a real danger but, with characteristic honesty and balance, he reminded the audience that most of today's terrorists had been recruited, armed and trained by the West to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Today's terrorist phenomenon was the result of that final episode of the Cold War. Amr Moussa would not be drawn on whether he might be a candidate for the presidency of Egypt, as has often been suggested in recent years. Instead, he strongly defended his country, dismissing reports that it risked succumbing to chaos or social tensions. It was a country with five thousand years of history, which could be counted on to survive for thousands of years more. He had special praise for the active debate about the country's future now taking place in Egypt.
