Prolonged uncertainty
Arabs are still asking questions about Iraq. Dina Ezzat reports
Four months after the occupation of Iraq, Arab countries have yet to decide on how to deal with the current situation in Iraq.
On Tuesday, a limited meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which brought together top diplomats from 13 Arab states and the secretary-general of the Arab League, failed to produce a new or concrete stance on the present situation or future of Iraq. The meeting was also attended by foreign ministers or permanent representatives of the Arab Summit Follow-Up Committee with representatives from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
The meeting, which convened to discuss the situation in Iraq, failed to make clear-cut decisions either on the big issues or the secondary issues.
At a joint press conference hosted by Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa and the Foreign Minister of Bahrain Mohamed Bin Mubarak -- the country currently chairing the Arab summit -- it became abundantly clear that participants of the meeting had failed to decide on whether they should recognise the Iraqi Interim Governing Council (IGC) as a legitimate representative of the Iraqi people, and were also unable to agree on the question of Iraq's chair in the Arab League, which has remained unoccupied since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. Likewise, no decision was made on whether or not Iraqi funds currently frozen in other Arab countries should be transferred to the IGC.
"This meeting was not expected to result in decisions. We met to review the situation and exchange views," the Bahraini foreign minister told the press on Tuesday afternoon in the wake of a five-hour meeting, which was preceded by a five hour consultative meeting on Monday night. The important thing, according to Bin Mubarak, is that the meeting reaffirmed collective Arab commitment to the right of Iraqi people to regain their independence and control over their national resources, and their right to a legitimately elected and democratic government to provide security and stability to Iraq and its neighbours. The rest, he added, consists of details which will be taken up "as we go".
These untouched "details" included the Arab stance on Iraq's right to resist US military occupation; the Arab position on the targeted killing by US forces of Saddam Hussein's two sons; and the declared intention of the occupying forces to kill the former Iraqi president if his arrest proves to be a security risk to its soldiers in Iraq.
With the exception of Moussa and Bin Mubarak, most other senior delegates all but refrained from making press statements.
The only issue on which all delegates were willing to make a statement was the question of sending Arab troops to Iraq. "No" was the unanimous answer.
"This is not on the cards," affirmed Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa at the joint press conference with Bin Mubarak. Moussa has been assailed with questions of this nature since an Arab League official was quoted as saying that, "sending Arab troops to Iraq is very much on the official agenda". According to Moussa, Bin Mubarak, Maher and every other minister: it would be odd, if not downright absurd, to consider sending troops now, while Iraq is under military occupation.
"This is a highly contentious issue. Who would be sending troops, and under which umbrella, and for which purpose. To which side in Iraq would we send the troops, [in light of current tension between the Iraqis and American occupying forces]," commented Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail.
Sources close to the meeting told Al-Ahram Weekly that, with the single exception of Qatar, all participating countries in the Tuesday meeting denied that a request from the US had been sent to their capitals. The Arab League, according to one source, also denied that it was approached by Washington on this matter.
Delegates at the meeting also agreed that they must deal with the US in its capacity as occupying power. This must be done, they said, if we wish to have an impact on the developments in Iraq.
Contact with the occupying force need not be through representatives in Iraq; Washington can be approached directly. The number of communications between the Arab League, or its member states, and the IGC are expected to increase in the last week of this month in the run up to the regular meeting of the Arab Council for minister of foreign affairs -- which will be convened in the second week of September -- as well as during the UN General Assembly meeting in late September in New York.
In the meantime a mini-Arab ministerial committee has been formed to follow up on developments in Iraq. The new committee comprises the Arab League secretary-general along with representatives from Tunis, the next chair of the Arab summit; Syria, the current chair of the Security Council; Egypt; Jordan; Saudi Arabia; and Bahrain. No definite date has been set for the first committee meeting, although the members are expected to keep in contact until the end of August. The mandate of the committee also remains unclear, how it will work remains unclear, and it has not been determined if the committee possesses the authority to convey collective Arab opinion to the US or even the UN.
"Today, four months after the occupation of Iraq, there still remain more questions than answers," admitted one senior Arab League source. One reason for this is that most Arab countries want to avoid upsetting the US. "Even countries like Syria -- a traditional critic of Arab attempts to maintain good relations with America at all times -- now understands the need to avoid confrontation with the US," commented one Arab diplomat. "There is an understanding now that any Arab country which speaks out against US policies in Iraq will be considered sympathetic to the toppled regime, and by default a sponsor of terrorism, or at the very least a terrorist sympathiser," he added.
According to Amr Moussa, with the current situation in Iraq the Arab countries are facing one of their most difficult times. To come through in once piece, he argued, they need to seriously reconsider their position and performance. The situation in the region -- the events both in Iraq and the occupied territories -- should give all Arab countries an incentive to review and reform their performance within the framework of the Arab League.
"The Arab order is being seriously challenged. The situation in Iraq is an omen," said Moussa.
In addition to the Iraq brief, the Arab Summit Follow-Up Committee had a quick glance at another set of issues which included developments in the Palestinian occupied territories and Sudan. Views expressed on these and a host of other issues will be picked up by Arab foreign ministers with the beginning of the new diplomatic season in September. No decisions are expected to be made, Arab diplomats suggest, until the regular Arab summit convenes at its set date and venue: March 2004, Tunis.
