The curtain of the 23rd Arab League (AL) summit was finally drawn in the fortress-like Iraqi capital of Baghdad Thursday evening with an unsurprising resolution calling on Syria leadership and the opposition to implement Kofi Annan's peace plan.

The outcome of the one-day meeting was much-predicted and offered no new cure for Syrian crisis, analysts here said.

UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR ANNAN

The pan-Arab meeting started after lunch time inside former leader Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone and lasted till night. Kofi Annan, the special joint envoy of UN and AL, was the most frequently mentioned name in the lengthy speeches made by the conferees.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened the summit by pressing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to swiftly act on Annan's six-point proposals. The Syrian government was confirmed Tuesday to have written to Annan a letter accepting the latter's peace plan. Ban told the meeting the "key" now was implementation.

For the host's part, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated their support for Annan and insisted the crisis be solved politically without foreign intervention. "We strongly support the efforts of the Arab and UN envoy Kofi Annan to solve the crisis peacefully," Maliki, the only Shi'ite leader among the attendees said.

The year-long unrest in Syria has come to a crossroad where it will either slide into civil war or open national dialogue to herald an inclusive government. Harsh sanctions imposed by the West and mediation efforts by AL proved futile. Annan's proposals are widely seen as the last effort to a peaceful settlement.

The Baghdad Declaration, issued after the summit, calls for Syria's ruling Alawite family and its opposition to start serious dialogue. And a resolution approved in the summit asks Syria's opposition forces to unify their ranks and prepare to enter talks with the government. It insists both Assad and his opponents "deal positively with" Annan. The resolution, however, does not demand Assad's resignation or mention arming rebels.

CONSENSUS TO END VIOLENCE

All the dignitaries attending the summit agreed on the proposal that the Syrian government and the opposition forces must stop all violence and start dialogue.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah called on Damascus to "listen to the language of reason and wisdom and end all sorts of violence against its people," saying that "prolonging the crisis in Syria will only make it more complicated."

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman reiterated their opposition to military intervention and urged Assad regime to end violence.

Analysts said the resolution approved in the summit was based on Annan's six-point proposals that call for ceasefire and peace talks. Sabah El-Sheikh, professor of political science with the University of Baghdad, told Xinhua that the summit without surprise offered no new cure for the Syrian crisis and the consensus the leaders reached was limited.

El-Sheikh said some countries like Iraq had made concessions to adopt a harsher tone to Syria, using words like "power transfer" and "free election," in part under the pressure of Sunni-dominated Arab countries. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in a news conference before the summit that despite not calling for Assad to step down Iraq "could no longer remain neutral." He said Iraq must "walk a thin line," alluding to its Sunni neighbors and Shi'ite Iran.

Iraq has been wary of a potential civil war in Syria which could spill over the border and escalate its domestic sectarian clashes. The Shi'ite-led government also fears Sunnis should steer power in Syria, it may embolden Iraq's Sunni communities to have a comeback.

DIVISIONS REMAIN

Sunni gulf countries particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been openly calling for arming the opposition or even military intervention to topple the Assad leadership. In this move, they hope, Syria can be cut off from Shi'ite Iran's leverage and reintegrate into the Sunni Arab community.

Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar's kings stayed away from the summit in Baghdad. Saudi kingdom sent its non-resident ambassador to Iraq and Qatar was represented by an even lower-level delegate. In fact the only top leader from Gulf countries who attended the summit was Kuwait's Emir, whose visit is historic in that it was the first of its kind since Saddam invaded his south neighbor more than 20 years ago.

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said in an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera TV that he would have wanted the level of representation to be higher "but we will sit with them in the future and talk." He did not elaborate.

Only nine leaders of Arab League's 22 member states turned up in the summit, namely Sudan, Somalia, Comoros, Djibouti, Lebanon, Palestinians, Tunisia, Kuwait and Libya.

Baghdad professor El-Sheikh said the low turnout highlighted deep divisions among the Arab League. Sunni gulf monarchies have been long wary of Iraq's nascent Shi'ite government who enjoys close ties with Tehran and moves to sideline Sunnis in Iraq. The absence of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE in the summit made the Baghdad Declaration and the Syria resolution lose credit and fall short of a real consensus.