Robert Fisk: Doha summit shows Arab disunity

The Iraqi delegate, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, called a senior Kuwaiti delegate at the Doha summit "a monkey and a traitor" for interrupting him.

The Kuwaitis had earlier said the Iraqi leadership should consider stepping down.

"The real giant" is how the Iraqi described President Saddam Hussein.

Everyone in the Arab Gulf, of course, said that Saddam should resign; which is not surprising since Saddam is the only Arab leader who - however wrong his reasons - has fought America.

At the Organisation of Islamic Conference at Doha yesterday, Sheikh Mohamed Sabah al-Selim al-Sabah interrupted to talk about Iraqi "lies".

Iraq's reply? Mr al-Douri was quite forthright. "Shut up, you monkey, you traitor. Cursed be upon your moustache." he replied.

Sheikh Ahmed Fahd al-Ahmed, the Kuwaiti information minister, leaped up, waved his small Kuwaiti flag and demanded the floor. But the chairman, Sheikh Hamed ben Khalifa bin al-Saadi, chairing the summit for the United Arab Emirates, was adamant.

"We are not here for such exchanges," he said.

Turning to al-Douri, he responded: "You started your speech by a verse of the Koran which said that we shall be united by the word of God. This is hypocrisy and falsehood."

No wonder most of the Arab nations declined their invitation to Doha. No wonder even Lebanon decided to send only a low-level delegation.

Democracy does not really exist in the Arab world. Only in Turkey does it have some effect; which is why, to the immense shame of the Arabs, Turkey has refused to accept US troops in its territory for an invasion of Iraq - even while at least five Arab states have done so.

Turkey, as every Arab knows, is an ally of Israel. But Turkey - the much loathed centre of the former Ottoman empire - has represented Arabs just as President Francois Chirac now represents a majority of Britons.

The Doha summit was never going to sway the governments of Europe or America but it was one more chance, if it were needed, for the Arab world to show some form of mature opposition to the impending war on Iraq.

Alas for the Arabs. The tribes of the Gulf and Iraq - "tribes with flags" as a great British historian of the Crusades called them - were not going to put on any shows of unity.

Just as Colonel Gaddafi of Libya and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia spat venom at each other at the Arab League summit at Shar-al-Sheikh at the weekend, so the Iraqis and their Gulf adversaries were bound to demonstrate their hatred yesterday.

- INDEPENDENT