It was an all-too familiar display of backtracking, a quintessential show of Arab world disunity that elicited groans in Middle Eastern policy circles, Western capitals, and among many ordinary Arab citizens who have grown weary with the way the Arab League works -- or not works as is more often the case.The international sighs followed Arab League chief Amr Moussa's statement slamming Western military strikes on Libya over the weekend.
"What has happened in Libya differs from the goal of imposing a no-fly zone," said Moussa on Sunday. "What we want is the protection of civilians and not bombing other civilians."
| The people at the air defense sites are not 'civilians', so we're cool. |
Moussa's statement at such a critical time was not welcome in policy circles that had pushed for an international intervention in Libya. It was however seized by pundits and columnists wary of another Western involvement in a Muslim nation.
But by Monday, the backtracking had begun.
At a press conference with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Cairo on Monday, Moussa stood by UN Resolution 1973, which was passed late last week.
"The Arab League position on Libya was decisive and from the first moment we froze membership of Libya," said Moussa, before adding, "...then we asked the
United Nations to implement a no-fly zone and we respect the UN resolution and there is no conflict with it."
Over the course of its 66-year existence, the Arab League has established a
"It is important that the international community speak with one voice to implement the second council resolution," said Ban, referring to UN Resolution 1973.
Although Moussa is firmly back on the international-one-voice bandwagon, his seemingly inconsistent Sunday comments did leave many experts scratching their heads.
"When European powers and the US go to war in the Arab world, there are basically two narratives," explained Christopher Dickey, Middle East editor at US Newsweek magazine. "The western narrative is about victory, while the Arab narrative is about victims. Clearly, Gaddafi's people want the narrative of victims. "I think Amr Moussa was caught up in the old narrative."
"I don't think he was speaking for the Arab League, he was not speaking as the chief of the Arab League, he was speaking as an Egyptian presidential candidate," said Dickey. "It's not about the Arab League, it's about Amr Moussa."