All forgotten?

US President Bush seems to be using the G8 summit as an opportunity to mend fences with the rest of the world, writes Khaled Dawoud from Washington

---

Click to view caption

A solitary, crippled figure looks over dozens of black umbrellas in Savannah's Forsyth Park representing the hundreds killed in the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The park was host to demonstrations against the G8 Summit which convened, shielded by an "army of police", in Sea Island, 80 miles away. There have been 944 coalition deaths in Iraq, including 832 Americans, as of 8 June 2004. Three quarters were killed in combat (photo: AP)

Senior US administration officials have exerted tremendous effort to ensure the success of the G8 summit of industrialised nations, which opened on Sea Island off the coast of Georgia on Tuesday in the hope of providing a boost to US President George W Bush ahead of presidential elections in November. The summit opened amid extremely tight security, with Iraq and Bush's plan for political, economic and social reforms in the "Broader Middle East and North Africa" topping the agenda.

US officials also presented the G8 leaders with initiatives aimed at combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, AIDS, world poverty and famine in the Horn of Africa, and a proposal to agree to a force of 50,000 peace-keepers to be deployed worldwide, starting with the African continent.

All such initiatives were clearly aimed at transforming Bush's image as an isolated leader whose unilateral policies since taking office four years ago have damaged Washington's relations with almost every country in the rest of the world.

The best news, however, came to an upbeat Bush from New York on Tuesday evening, where the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of a joint US-British resolution backing the newly formed Iraqi interim government and legitimising the presence of over 160,000 occupation troops under the banner of the UN. According to one UN diplomat, US diplomats showed unprecedented "flexibility" while negotiating the fifth and final draft of the latest resolution on Iraq. The mood and spirit at the world body, according to the source, was "totally different and far more positive" than more than a year ago when the US failed to win Security Council approval for a resolution to launch its war on Iraq. Bush at the time accused the UN of being ineffective, saying he would not permit other nations to decide how the US should defend itself.

The new resolution serves to reassure opponents to the war on Iraq that the US/UN- appointed interim Iraqi government due to assume power on 30 June will enjoy "full sovereignty". US officials agreed to set a deadline for the withdrawal of occupation troops by the end of 2005, confirming that the government that will assume power after elections in January 2005 will also have the right to demand the withdrawal of troops any time after that date. The US and the Iraqi interim government agreed that the two sides will "coordinate closely" and "in full partnership" on any future military operations. There was no agreement, however, to grant the interim government veto rights over coalition forces.

Members of the new Iraqi cabinet, namely Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Foreign Minister Hoshe Zibari and President Ghazi Al-Yawer, also reiterated their request for troops to remain in the country to help provide security.

Meanwhile, Bush travelled to Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in WWII late last week and met with some of the strongest critics of the war, French President Jacques Chirac as well as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. US officials said the meetings were to prepare for the G8 summit and to secure a unanimous UN vote on the Iraq resolution. Following a meeting between Bush and Schroeder, a senior US administration official described the encounter as the "warmest meeting that the two leaders have had since 2003, since before the war on Iraq". Asked whether the two leaders discussed past differences, the official said, "Last year belongs to last year -- that is, it belongs in the category of history. What the two leaders discussed was what Germany and the United States can do together, moving forward."

At the opening of the G8 summit Bush also extended a warm welcome to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who described the Iraq resolution as "a major step forward". But he also warned that, "naturally, it will take quite a long time before the adoption of this document will have any impact ... on the ground in Iraq."

On the "Greater Middle East", US officials said they were certain other G8 members -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- would back their plan calling for major political, economic and social reforms. The 10-page document, entitled "Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa", is based on Bush's conviction that the spread of democracy and freedom in the Middle East is a major way to combat the "terrorism" which poses a threat to world security.

An earlier draft of the initiative, leaked to the London-based Arab newspaper Al- Hayat some months ago, had angered Arab and European countries. The US was criticised for writing the draft without prior consultation, and for dictating reform within the region referred to in that version as "The Greater Middle East".

In the latest draft, US officials were clearly keen to respond to some of the concerns expressed by several Arab countries, referring to the region as the "Broader Middle East and North Africa". The initiative also states clearly that "successful reform depends on the countries of the region, and change should not and cannot be imposed from outside." The draft also notes, "Each country is unique and their diversity should be respected; each society will reach its own conclusions about the pace and scope of change. Yet distinctiveness, important as it is, must not be exploited to prevent reform."

In response to pressure, reportedly from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the initiative states: "The resolution of long-lasting and bitter disputes, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is an important element of progress in the region. At the same time, regional conflicts must not be an obstacle for reforms. Indeed reforms may significantly contribute toward resolving them." The document also affirms the G8's backing for the two-state solution: Israel and Palestine.

However, amendments to the initiative did not meet the approval of all of Washington's close Arab allies. Leaders from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia were invited to attend a meeting with G8 leaders to launch the document, but the invitation was turned down. Meanwhile, leaders of Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Turkey have agreed to meet at the summit. Cairo reportedly remains unhappy with the notion of a "Broader Middle East" that includes non-Arab countries and saw the proposal as an attempt to weaken the Arab League. Other Arab nations have also objected to a proposal in the initiative, entitled "Forum for the Future", which calls for regular meetings between G8 and Middle East countries on a ministerial level to review the progress of reform implementation.

A senior administration official said he did not expect to obtain financial backing for the initiative by the end of the G8 summit; several funding programmes apparently already exist. But the aim of the initiative, the official said, was to declare that the request for reforms in the "Broader Middle East" was an international one, and not simply an American one. This approach, observers believe, is an attempt to prove to domestic opponents that the war on Iraq and Bush's unilateral policies have not alienated the US from the rest of the world.