Their task, to finalize the agenda of the weekend summit in the Syrian capital, has been overshadowed by deep divisions between the countries they represent and widely felt skepticism that the multiple crises plaguing the Middle East have killed the summit's chances even before it begins.

So much so that Israel, officially the Arab countries' common enemy, has become the least of their problems to be discussed at the two-day summit, as inter-Arab animosity and power struggles take center stage.

In fact, the first agreement reached by the foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League was to re-activate the Saudi-proposed Arab peace initiative, first launched at the 2002 Beirut Arab summit.

The initiative offers to normalize relations with the Jewish state in return for Israel's withdrawal from the Arab territories it captured in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Some Arab states had demanded the suspension of the Saudi initiative in response to Israel's latest military assault on Gaza and the bogging down of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations that were re-launched at the Annapolis conference in November.

According to reports from Damascus, the ministers decided to abide by a Palestinian Authority (PA) request to not insist on a declaration made in Cairo earlier this month that the "continuation of the Arab side to offer the Arab initiative for peace will be linked to Israel's fulfillment of its obligations in the context of international texts for achieving peace in the region."

In the opening speech at Thursday's ministerial meeting, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Israel, supported by the United States, "is still unable to show a political will to create peace; and therefore we support what came out of our meeting in Cairo, which is to study Arab options for the strategy of peace."

The Arab League's assistant secretary-general for Palestinian affairs, Muhammad Sobeih, told reporters at the sidelines of the meeting that the Arab peace initiative "will be re-launched to the international community in order to stress Arab concern for finding a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in Amman earlier on Thursday that he rejected changes to the Saudi initiative, because "it is valuable and the other side [Israel] should accept it without amendments."

Palestinian Authority officials claim that the initiative, which Israel has not accepted, supports their negotiating position and keeps the conflict with Israel within an Arab framework.

But inter-Palestinian reconciliation did not fare so well, with the PA taking a rigid stance toward a recent Yemeni initiative.

Arab diplomats told the Middle East Times that much of the morning session of the foreign ministers' meeting was focused on the Yemeni plan to end the division between the Fatah-led PA, which administers much of the West Bank, and Islamist Hamas, which has been controlling the Gaza Strip since it routed the Palestinian Authority in June.

And although Fatah and Hamas officials shook hands in Sanaa last week after signing the Yemeni initiative, which calls for a return to the status quo before Hamas' takeover, Abbas still says he will not negotiate with the Islamic movement until it gives up control of the coastal strip.

Diplomats said the Yemeni plan will be "transformed into an Arab initiative" and submitted to the summit for their leaders' endorsement.

But few believe the summit in Damascus will be able to resolve the bitter inter-Palestinian division.

And even fewer observers hold out hope that the divided Arab nations will even partially resolve Lebanon's worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

With Lebanon boycotting the summit, and Arab heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt – and possibly Jordan and Morocco – sending low-level representatives to protest what they say is Syria's role in blocking the election of a Lebanese president, the Lebanese crisis will not be discussed in sufficient detail to pave the way for a solution.

Muallem implicitly declined to take full blame for the crisis in Lebanon, which has been without a president since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term expired in November. Instead, he urged the Arab supporters of the Western-backed Lebanese government to share some responsibility.

"Syrian efforts alone are not enough," Muallem said. "The Arab parties that are friendly with and have influence in Lebanon, namely our brothers in Saudi Arabia, should use this influence to help find a solution."

Saudi Arabia and some other U.S.-Arab allies accuse Syria and Iran of inciting their allies in the Hezbollah-led opposition to block the election of a president.

Diplomats in Damascus said the summit is not expected to come up with any new ideas for the Lebanese crisis, but to adopt the already tabled Arab plan, which calls for electing army chief General Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government in which no single party has veto power, and a new electoral law.

The ministers also discussed a Libyan proposal to form a ministerial committee tasked with a job some consider even more difficult than Lebanon: to work on closing Arab rifts before their tensions break out into further crises.