Following its postponement of the Arab summit on Saturday, Tunisia avowed its desire to host the summit, claiming that changing the location evades the need to overcome divisions in the Arab world.
Tunisian President Zine El-‘Abadine Ben ‘Ali announced on Monday that Tunisia upholds its presidency of the Arab League and would like to resolve the problems before hosting the summit, originally scheduled for March 29-30 in Tunis.
“Certain parties are ignoring the reasons for the delay of the Arab summit, specifically the deep divergence on basic issues and choices directly linked to the future of the Arab citizen and nation,” the official Tunisian La Presse newspaper quoted a source in the country’s foreign ministry.
Egypt proposed holding the conference in Cairo on April 16, news sources reported on Monday.
Saudi Foreign Minister Sa’oud Al-Fei’sal has taken the initiative of rescheduling the summit to a date before the end of April and is reportedly arranging talks between Egypt and Tunisia.