The Arab Summit in Amman was held under the title" do not split up" (In Arabic the Quranic version: Wala Tafarraqou, which is like a pledge on the name of the good to keep United).

The summit was attended by 15 Arab Presidents and kings, while 7 only did not participate: Syria because it was not invited, The Algerian President and the Oman Sultan and the UAE Emir  due to sickness, and Iraq and Libya was represented by the Prime Ministers. Finally the King of Morroco apologized to come in the last minute due to his non convention that " The summit style of speeches will be enough in order to solve the Arab problems".

During the summit all the leaders made speeches except the United Arab Emirates and Oman as part of the arrangement between the Gulf Countries about who to speak from those countries.

In addition to the Arabs the UN General Secratary, the EU head of EEAS Ms Mogherini, and the American Envoy Jason Greenbaldt attended. In addition there was a French Representaive attendig, and others from the OIC and the African Union among others.

In the sidelines of the summit, several meetings for reconciliation between the Arab leaders were held such as the one between Preseident Sisi of Egypt and King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and also the one between King Salman and the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al Ebadi.

Besides that it was not possible to reconcile beteween Egypt and Qatar.

President Sisi also left the Summit hall in order to meet King Salman when the Tamim the Emir of Qatar started presenting his speech.

Other political meetings were held also aside to the summit, three important to the Israeli Palestinian context are important to mention: One between King Abdallah of Jordan, President Sisi, President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, and Ms Federica Mogherini. Another one was between Abdallah, Sisi and Abbas. Besides that Mr Greenbladt held separate meetings with the leaders of Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE, to confirm President Trump " personal interest to get to a solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict". The two other meetings mentioned earlier focused on how to resume" Serious and effective Palestinian Israeli peace talks".

In regard to the summit resolutions it is noticeable that" Amman Declaration" of the summit did not mention Iran directly, but instead it called the" neighboring countries to stop their intervention in the internal affairs of the Arab countries, and to try to develop relations based on mutual respect with the Arab countries".

In regard to the Arab (and Palestinian) Israeli conflict, the Amman Declaration called for the following points:

• To act for the launching of serious and effective I-P negotiations with a time schedule with the aim to reach two states solution on 1967 borders and to establish the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as it capital".
• "Stressing the Arab commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative with all its articles as a basis for comprehensive peace and reconciliation between the Arab Countries and Israel to be achieved after the Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian occupied territories and going back to the 1967 borders".
• "Reject all the Israeli Unilateral steps, and those taken in Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque. The Summit alternatively confirmed and supported the continuation of the Jordanian custodianship over the holy places in Jerusalem.
• Call upon the implementation of the UNSC Council resolutions 252, 267, 465, and 478 about Jerusalem, and requesting the countries of the world not to move their Embassis in Israel to Jerusalem. Finally the declaration confirmed the support to the UNESCO resolution of 18/11/2018 regarding the Islamic Holy places in Jerusalem, and called upon Israel to stop its violations in Al Aqsa mosque.
• Call for the implementation of the UNSC resolution 2334 and all the Internatinal legitimacy resolutions regarding Palestine.
• Support the results of Paris Conference of 15th of January 2017.
• Support Palestinian reconciliation and the establishment of a Palestinian Unity Government.
• Call upon the Arab Countires to implement previous resolutions to support Palestine with 100 million dollars starting from the 1st of April, and to support Al Aqsa and Al Quds Funds( both for supporting Jerusalem with 500 million dollars.

Conclusions:

• The Arab Peace Initiative was confirmed without any change.
• All the media talk about regional confernce between the Arabs and Israeli without Palestinian participation was proved to be wrong. Instead the summit confirmed the impotence of the negotiations between the two sides of I-P with Arab regional support.
• The mechanism of the API that Jordan and Egypt are the two countries to be involved directly in promoting the API to Israel and supporting the track of negotiations between the two sides was respected. The meetings to discuss the peace process was held with the participation of these parties without others joining such as for instance the Gulf Countries.
• The Arab European coordination regarding the peace process was strengthened.
• In His speech the General Secteray of the UN mentioned the importance of developing coordination between the UN and the Arab League.
• The American Envoy attended the summit, therefore the Trump Administration became better informed about the Arab positions . April will witness the visit of King Abdallah to Washington this time in his capacity as the head of the summit till March 2018, also the visits of Sisi and Abbas. We will see how the American position will emerge after those meetings.
• Arab- Arab reconciliations were made mainly of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and also the good relations are back between Palestine and Egypt mainly in regard to the coordination about the upcoming peace process.

In conclusion: This was a successful summit with high percentage of Arab leaders participation and strong decisions. What will follow are the April meetings in Washington that might create a momentum forward, and that will continue till March next year Arab Summit that will take place in Riyadh/ Saudi Arabia after the UAE apologized from hosting it. 

IMESClub MESClub vice-president Nick Soukhov took part in the live dialogue on the France 24 Arabiya on January, 19, 2017: Syria - what the equation after the Astana?

مفاوضات مرتقبة في أستانة بشأن الصراع السوري مقررة يومي الاثنين والثلاثاء القادمين. جولة أخرى من المحادثات السورية السورية لكن هذه المرة كل شيئ اختلف في الميدان السوري كما على الساحة الإقليمية والدولية. مهندسو أستانة مختلفون عن مهندسي جنيف، وشاغلو مقاعد طاولة مفاوضات أستانة مختلفين عن من جلسوا إلى التفاوض في جنيف. الروسي والأتراك سيرعون المفاوضات والأمركيون مدعوون لكن لم يعرف بعد إن كانوا سيحضرون أو من سيرسلون ولا بأي نية سيشاركون. سيكون على الطاولة إيرانيون وسيغيب عنها الخليجيون. فهل سينجح مؤتمر أستانة حيث فشل آخرون ؟