Скачать или смотреть Arab summit opens with only 10 leaders from 22-member Arab League

(29 Mar 2012) 1. Various of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arriving at the Arab league summit venue in Baghdad
2. Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and delegation
3. President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas arriving with delegation
4. Arrival of the Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby
5. Arrival of the Sudanese president Hassan al-Bashir and delegation
6. Arrival of the head of the Libyan National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil
7. Arrival of the Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki and delegation
8. Photo opportunity of the Arab leaders
9. Mid of the empty Syrian seat
10. Mid of meeting
11. Mid of the Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki
12. Wide of meeting
13. Mid of the Bahrain Foreign Minister Khaled Bin Hamad al-Khalifa
14. Wide of meeting
15. Mid of the Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Subah al-Hamad
16. Mid of Iraqi president Jalal Al-Talabani with the Arab Le-ague chief Nabil Elaraby
STORYLINE
The annual Arab summit meeting opened in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday with only 10 of the leaders of the 22-member Arab League in attendance amid a growing rift between Arab countries over how far they should go to end the one-year conflict in Syria.
As the summit opened, two explosions were heard in central Baghdad.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official said a mortar hit near the Iranian Embassy, just outside the Green Zone where the summit was being held in a palace once used by dictator Saddam Hussein.
He had no word on a second explosion and said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.
Iraq had hoped that hosting the summit would herald its return to the Arab fold after two decades of isolation, but the absence of more than half of the Arab leaders and the ability of militants to launch attacks despite a massive security operation suggested that Iraq may still have some way to go before it could fully return to normalcy and reintegrate into the Arab world.
The Emir of Kuwait was the lone head of state to attend from the six US-allied Gulf Arab nations.
The absence of five Gulf Arab leaders reflects increased Sunni-Shia tensions across the region in the aftermath of last year's Arab Spring uprisings, particularly the one against a regime dominated by a Shiite offshoot sect in Sunni-majority Syria and another by majority Shiites in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, also a Gulf Arab nation.
Relations between Iraq and the Gulf Arab nations have also been tense over criticism by Shiite Iraqi politicians and clerics of Bahrain's crackdown on Shiite protesters. The demonstrators seek more economic opportunity and an end to what they see as discrimination by the Sunni ruling family.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday met with Bahrain's foreign minister on the sidelines of the Arab summit and Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari later told reporters that Bahrain would not be on the summit's agenda, a decision
that appeared to be a concession by the hosts.
Meanwhile, Gulf nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pushing behind the scenes for more assertive action to end the Syrian conflict.
Privately, they see little benefit in the Arab League's efforts to reach a peaceful settlement and prefer instead to see a small core of nations banding together to act on their own.
Among the options they are considering are arming the Syrian rebels and creating a safe haven for the opposition along the Turkish-Syrian border to serve as a humanitarian refuge or staging ground for anti-regime forces.

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