Prof Clovis Maksoud
a former League of Arab States ambassador to India
New Delhi
7 March 2007
dimmed" state of their relations but new Delhi must at the same time realise that
"objectivity is commitment to what is right", according to a former League of Arab States
ambassador to India Prof Clovis Maksoud.
"India is supportive of Palestine but there is an element of abstention," he told this
newspaper. "Objectivity is not an equidistant position, neither is neutrality as equidistant
position ... this is what we have learnt from [Jawaharlal] Nehru. India has to determine
who is in a state of contempt to international law ... against who there is evidence of
defiance and insult to the International Court of Justice's decision on the Wall."
Prof Maksoud is associated with the Center for the Global South at American University
in Washington, DC. A Lebanese national, Prof Maksoud was the chief representative of
the League of Arab States in India from 1961 to 1966. He is in India at the invitation of
Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). He will deliver two lectures at Jawaharlal
Nehru University and India International Centre.
"I will meet old friends and try to make new friends," he says about his stay in New
Delhi. "I visit India as often as I can. I spent the best years of my life in India in the
1960s. This is my fourth visit since I left India after establishing the office of Arab
League here," he reminisces.
Prof Maksoud intends to share with his Indian interlocutors, his thoughts on the Fourth
Arab Human Development Report and women's empowerment. "Women's empowerment
might be the corrective that has eluded us ... the cementing element for bringing national
unity that has eluded us," he observes.
He believes the Saudi Arabia--Iran talks demonstrated the mutual recognition of dangers
of allowing sectarianism to determine political developments. "The outcome of their
understanding will have a salutary effect on many burning issues that are
haemorrhaging Arab vitality and role," he says.
On the issue of Iran, Prof Maksoud says the Iranian leadership must tone down their
rhetoric. "The US hopefully would restore its diplomatic act of persuasion rather than
practising dictation," he adds. Commenting on talk of Shia-Sunni divide, he hopes that
the countries in the region rise above their narrow differences. "If not Arab unity then at
least Arab coordination [should be there] at this juncture," he asserts. He refers the
attempts by "neocons" to isolate Iran and Syria to illustrate his submission.
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