Issue No. 604
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19 - 25 September 2002 Issue No. 604 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Temporary relief
Although Baghdad has agreed to permit entrance to weapons inspectors, the spectre of a new UN resolution is keeping Egyptian diplomats busy on the Iraqi front. Soha Abdelaty reports
Cairo breathed a sigh of relief this week when the Iraqi regime said it would allow United Nations (UN) inspectors back into the country. Iraqi Foreign Minister Nagi Sabri on Monday delivered a letter from Baghdad to the UN signalling Iraq's unconditional acceptance of the return of inspection teams. Sabri presented the message during a meeting with Kofi Annan and Amr Moussa, the respective secretary-generals of the UN and Arab League.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher expressed his optimism that this was a first step in the right direction. He told reporters in New York after meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell that he and his Arab colleagues had appealed to Iraq to allow the weapons experts back without conditions. "This is the beginning of a process of easing tensions," Maher said. Powell received a copy of the letter during his meeting with Maher.
The Egyptian official, who was in New York to attend the 57th session of the UN General Assembly, said after the meeting that Powell had told him Washington would study the Iraqi letter. A statement from the White House, however, subsequently dismissed the letter and expressed the US administration's determination to continue working towards the adoption of a UN resolution that would permit the use of force against Iraq.
Cairo's position on the Iraqi matter has been that Washington should not act unilaterally, but should work with the UN in dealing with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But after US President George W Bush's speech to the General Assembly last week, the question for Cairo became: what would happen in the likely event that the UN Security Council authorises an attack against Iraq?
Bush had signalled in his speech to the UN assembly his administration's willingness to work with the UN to formulate a resolution that demands Iraqi compliance with previous resolutions and gives Hussein a deadline by which to do so. And as the Bush administration stepped up its diplomatic activity to convince the four other permanent members of the Security Council of its position, Cairo's nightmare seemed to be coming true.
Egyptian officials have repeatedly expressed fears about the consequences that a military attack against Iraq might have on Arab public opinion. To avert the adoption of another UN resolution, Cairo has advised Iraq to accept the inspectors.
"I call upon the Iraqi leadership to make use of this opportunity to implement all the relevant Security Council resolutions, and accept the return of the inspectors immediately so that we can avoid an escalation of the situation, and avoid the dismal and dangerous consequences that will impact negatively on the security and safety of the dear Iraqi people and upon the Middle East as a whole," President Hosni Mubarak said on Saturday. Mubarak was expressing his reaction to Bush's speech on 12 September.
In New York, Egyptian officials worked with UN and Arab officials to avert the adoption of another Security Council resolution against Iraq. "The situation may change, making a resolution no longer necessary," Maher said on Sunday. "We are discussing how to overcome present difficulties. If we do overcome them, then I suppose there won't be need for a resolution." Arab nations want to solve the Iraqi crisis peacefully, Maher said, adding that while there is "a sense of urgency" surrounding this goal, "it's not a matter that can be solved in one evening or one day."
Back in Egypt, press reports indicated that Mubarak had intended to become personally involved in convincing the Iraqi regime to back down from its stance. Jordanian sources last week hinted at the possibility of an Egyptian- Jordanian-Syrian summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Earlier this week, before the Iraqis indicated that they would permit entry to the inspectors, Egyptian diplomats had raised the possibility of a tour by Mubarak early next week to the two countries and Saudi Arabia for the purpose of coordinating Arab positions.
As one Arab diplomat explained before Iraq's decision on Monday, "Our aim is to bring about an Arab initiative to convince Iraq to accept the return of the inspectors in order to avoid a war." He continued, "It would be easier to encourage Iraq to accept the return of the weapons' experts if all Arab states jointly advise him to do so."
And although Iraq appears to have finally given in to the pressure, the US administration's statement after receiving this news in which it indicated that it would continue to seek a new resolution from the UN, has put Arab and Egyptian officials between a rock and a hard place.
On the one hand, the US is doing exactly what the Arabs had been calling on it to do by working with the UN. As Maher had said in an interview with Time magazine, "Egypt, because of practical reasons and principles, cannot support US military action unless there is a UN resolution against Iraq's refusal to implement international resolutions." He added, "In this case [if Iraq refuses to implement the resolutions] Egypt will support the resolutions of international legality."
On the other hand, Egyptian officials have insisted that there were limits to the support Cairo would give Washington in a military action against Iraq. Egypt has denied a report in the Kuwaiti daily Al- Siyassa that said it had agreed to let US forces use its territory as a launching pad for an attack on Iraq. "As far as Egypt is concerned, this report is totally untrue and baseless, this matter has not even been discussed, not with the Americans nor with anyone else," an official spokesman told the Egyptian state's Middle East News Agency (MENA).
Maher said, "If there is a UN resolution that imposes certain measures on Iraq, we will support it." But he added that Egypt still believed "a military strike would destabilise the Middle East." He added, "The Arab peoples are angry at what is happening in Palestine, and for humanitarian reasons, at what is happening to the Iraqi people. A strike on Iraq will exacerbate this anger, even though many people in the Arab region have no sympathy for [President] Saddam Hussein."
Egyptian and Arab officials managed to avert the adoption of a Security Council resolution this week. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen to what extent Egypt and other Arab countries will be able to resist Washington's determination to seek UN authorisation in spite of Iraq's acceptance of the inspection team.
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