Arab League chief says Tunisia is dire warning

CAIRO – The head of the Arab League told the region's leaders Wednesday the upheaval in Tunisia is linked to deteriorating economic conditions throughout the Arab world, warning them that their people's anger has reached unprecedented heights.

In impassioned remarks, Amr Moussa told an Arab economic summit in Egypt that "the Arab soul is broken by poverty, unemployment and general recession."

"This is in the mind of all of us," Moussa said in his opening address to the 20 Arab leaders and other representatives of Arab League members gathered in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The summit is the first top level Arab meeting since protests fueled by joblessness and other economic woes in Tunisia forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee, bringing an end to his iron-fist, 23-year rule of the country.

The unrest has helped inspire similar protests around the Arab world and calls for political change, though activists face vast security forces heavily vested in the status quo backing hard-line regimes ready to crack down on challenges to their rule.

Arab leaders have little or no tolerance for dissent. Many of them run political systems that superficially mirror democratic systems but in essence are authoritarian regimes, with de facto one-party systems or monarchies led by absolute rulers with proven track records of suppressing change.

"The Tunisian revolution is not far from us," Moussa warned. "The Arab citizen entered an unprecedented state of anger and frustration." He called for an Arab "renaissance" to lift people from their frustration.

The meeting in Egypt was orginally intended as a platform to discuss trade, business and investment, but has been overshadowed by the revolt in Tunisia and its reverberation around the region.

Thousands have demonstrated in Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Libya and Yemen recently over the economic situation in their respective countries, some explicitly in solidarity with the Tunisians.

A rash of attempted self-immolations also has struck Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania by protesters seeking to copy Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old whose self-immolation helped inspire the protests that toppled Tunisia's authoritarian president.

Mindful of those events, Arab leaders at the summit committed to a proposed $2 billion program to boost faltering economies that have propelled crowds into the streets to protest high unemployment, rising prices and rampant corruption.

Kuwaiti ruler Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah said the fund will "contribute to creating new job opportunities for young Arabs" at a time when the Arab world is witnessing "unprecedented historical crisis."

The idea of the fund was first suggested by Kuwait during the economic summit it hosted in 2009, but the proposal has been slow getting off the ground — like many Arab League initiatives requiring members to pledge money.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have promised to pay $500 million each and, after the economic-related unrest in Tunisia, additional pledges are pouring in. It is not immediately clear how these funds would be dispersed and who qualifies to benefit from them.

One Egyptian media official described the cash and the grants as "bribes" to the people.

"For some Arab regimes, what happened in Tunisia is like a terrifying ghost," Abdel Latif el-Menawi, a top official in state TV, wrote in his weekly column in the pro-government Al-Ahram Al-Massai.

"Some governments rushed and offered bribes to their people to increase subsidies, commodities, grants and offers to its people," el-Menawi wrote, warning that the measures would backfire when nations realize that this is a way to appease the masses and protect against a Tunisian-style uprising.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who made no mention of Tunisia in his remarks in Sharm el-Sheikh, stressed the importance of economic cooperation, tagging it "a national security" requirement.

The 82-year-old president, who chaired the summit, also said investment in the Arab world's youth will bring future rewards, calling the young "the most precious of all our resources and wealth."

In that vein, he acknowledged that "the issue of employment will remain at the top of all challenges." Many Arab states are struggling to find jobs for their skyrocketing populations.

Mubarak emphasized the need to involve the private sector in projects to connect the Arab world through electricity grids, communications and trade.

Saudi commentator Turki al-Dakhail, writing in the al-Watan daily, called for the Arab regimes to end the "starvation" of their nations.

"The systematic starvation of people in Tunisia led to an uprising and anger of the people," al-Dakhail wrote. "Starving your dog will force him to eat you up."