By IPS Correspondents
ABU DHABI, May 6 2003 (IPS)

An Arab League senior official of has urged the Arab world to sort out different perceptions they have about the situation in the region after the war on Iraq by resorting to reason and dialogue.

Dr Ahmed Yussuf Ahmed, representative of the General Secretariat of the Arab League, said in an opening address to a two-day symposium on the Arab regional system under international variables organized by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up on Sunday, that several crisis-ridden variables have taken place at international and regional levels since the 1980s that require immediate and serious attention, according to a report in the ‘Khaleej Times’.

Several leading lights in the Arab world are taking part in the symposium that will be dealing with the political, economic and security situation in the Arab world in the wake of the US-led war on Iraq.

Dr Ahmed said the symposium was significant in many aspects, the foremost being the patronage of the Zayed Centre, reputed for its outstanding contribution to all issues concerning the Arab world.

Secondly, he said: "The subjects to be discussed are of prime importance, as they deal with the Arab regional order within the framework of the international variables and at a time when Arab people are passing through a critical phase that calls for immediate collective efforts.

"The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and the emergence of the Israeli right wing and its policies in dealing with the Palestinian issue, the US post-September 11 foreign policy are all issues that have to be dealt with in the right perception using logic and reason."

Dr Raghid Al Sulh, Political Affairs Adviser at the Economic and Social Committee in West Asia (ESCWA), said in his address that there was again talk about dissolving Arab institutions and replacing them with other regional systems that would never be able to serve interests and aspirations of the Arab nation.

Mohammed Khalifa Al Murr, Director of the Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up, said in his welcome address that the global situation was rushing towards a clash of ideas and values that would endanger mankind.

"There is no difference between the oppressed and the oppressor," he said, "it is the moral duty of civilized people to join hands to end this injustice."

The first working session started with a paper presented by Dr Al Sulh under the title, – The Arab Regional System: the Reality and Expectations Under Political Changes". On reality and features of the current Arab regional system, he explained that such features included oldness, the ability to continue, low effectiveness and performance. Also, the inability of this system to prevent war against Iraq has hit the system hard.

Dr Mohammad Al Majzoub, former deputy president of the Lebanese Constitutional Council, presenting a paper titled ôThe International Political Variables", said that the US administration has changed the UN organization into a toy and an instrument for serving its interests.

Dr Butrus Labaki, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Lebanese Establishment for Economic and Social Development, said in his paper titled ôThe Arab Regional System Under International Variables" that the whole world, including the Arab region, has been witnessing a series of changes since the late 1980s, both politically and economically. This has left dramatic effects on the entire world, he added.

He pointed out that the economic crisis that began in the late 1960s (1968-1975) with the collapse of the monetary system which prevailed after World War II was due to the deficit that hit the US balance of payment.

Dr Semir Subh, economic researcher, said in his paper that negative repercussions of the international variables on the Arab economy started before this war. "They go back to the Second Gulf War, causing weakness in economic performance of the Arab countries – rich and poor alike with the former suffering indebtedness and the latter social and economic crises."

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