Arabs react to the Arab League summit

Arab social media users were busy over the past days responding to the outcomes and resolutions of the Arab League summit in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt.

The main item on the agenda of the summit was the situation in Yemen, where a Saudi Arabian-led military operation started just before the summit, which in turn announced plans for a joint pan-Arab military intervention force.

That discussion – as well as the lack of talk about other pressing regional issues – sparked a wide response among Arabs on social media, with a notably heavy Saudi tweeting presence.

One of the most tweeted angles of the summit was the response of Saud al-Faisal, Saudi FM, to a letter addressed to the assembled Arab leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Faisal described Russia’s call for peace as a hypocritical act, due to Moscow's continuous support for Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.

“They speak about tragedies in Syria while they are an essential part of the tragedies befalling the Syrian people, by arming the Syrian regime above and beyond what it needs to fight its own people,” Faisal said.

The tension began when Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi read Putin’s letter towards the end of the Arab summit. The letter stated: “We support the Arabs' aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any external interference.”

People on Twitter, mostly Saudis, broadly applauded their FM’s response.