BEIRUT — Laughing for the cameras, the Arab leaders appear nothing if not secure in their power, four longtime members of the Middle East coterie of rulers-for-life.
How times have changed. The photograph from an October 2010 Arab-African summit shows the leaders of Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia, all of them now deposed — and in one case dead — since the Arab Spring revolutions began sweeping through the Middle East last year.
In the photo, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi wears black sunglasses and distinctive robes, with his arms draped around Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, both of them grinning. To one side is Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, standing with his hands clasped, smiling and relaxed.
Today, Saleh is out of power, Ben Ali is in exile, Mubarak is on trial and Gadhafi is dead, killed by rebel fighters. Their countries are enduring often-painful transitions.
At Thursday’s Arab League summit in Baghdad, the region’s new order was apparent. Gadhafi, a perennial source of drama at the summits with his outbursts, is gone, replaced by the head of Libya’s transitional government. Tunisia’s new president, a human-rights activist, is the country’s first leader since the demise of Ben Ali’s 23-year-long dictatorship.
Egypt and Yemen, caught up in their domestic turmoil, sent only midlevel officials.
Also absent from the Baghdad summit is Bashar Assad, the Syrian leader who is holding onto power despite a bloody uprising against his rule. The Arab League has suspended Syria’s membership, citing the government’s deadly crackdown on dissent.
