"Arabs founder in Tunis," headlined the paper Aujourd'hui le Maroc, adding that the "Arab peoples have never understood why their heads of state have been meeting for nearly 60 years to do nothing, or rather to do everything to scupper any desire for unity".
Another newspaper, the Islamic-leaning Attajdid, said: "It is clear that irresponsible parties sabotaged this summit to avoid answering the demands of the Arab and Muslim people who want Zionist state terrorism to be condemned".
Arab foreign ministers who were in Tunis to prepare for the summit said they were stunned when the Tunisian government told them it was indefinitely postponing the event because of differences over political reform.
The stakes for the summit had been especially high as Washington was pushing for reform as part of its war on terror, while angry Arab peoples demanded their authoritarian governments do more to defend the Palestinians against Israel and to end the US-led occupation of Iraq.
The Opinion daily said the cancellation showed "once again Arabs' inability to meet the challenges" they face, adding that the postponement of the summit "will have serious repercussions on inter-Arab relations ... and on the Middle East conflict in general".
Al Mounaataf said the move called into question "the future of common Arab action (and) showed the need to renew this action".
La Gazette du Maroc went further, saying it has "become obvious that the structures of the Arab League need a serious facelift".
Only the socialist newspaper Liberation said the postponement did not mean the League was incapable of "advancing in its work." The paper said: "The difficulty resided not in a lack of interest among members, but to the contrary to a profusion of proposals coming from the various delegations - from Jordan, Egypt, the (United Arab) Emirates, Yemen.
"So the debates have begun ... to try to make a synthesis of everything that has been proposed," Liberation said. – Sapa.
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