Moving on two explosive fronts

Dina Ezzat looks at Egyptian diplomacy's efforts to deal with confusing situations in both Palestine and Iraq

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As it scrambles to resolve increasingly complex situations in Palestine and Iraq, Cairo's primary concern right now is securing a "dignified end" to the crisis surrounding dying Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. This is being done in light of information suggesting that the president's spouse is fighting attempts by doctors and senior Palestinian figures to remove Arafat's ailing body from life support machines once doctors declare his deep and worsening coma irreversible.

Egyptian officials indicated that Cairo sent a subtle message to Paris confirming that it would not be interfering in the on-going confrontation between Mrs Suha Arafat and top Palestinian political figures, since matters of life and death "are beyond us all".

An Egyptian diplomatic source said, "we are not going to get into this Palestinian-Palestinian debate, especially when it involves Arafat's wife and top political figures including current Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, and Mahmoud Abbas, the number two man in the Fatah movement, who is the Arafat's obvious successor. This is not our job."

According to this source, Cairo trusts that the Palestinian leaders will deal with the situation in a manner that is sensitive to the mood and feelings of the Palestinian people. "What we can and are willing to do is to secure the smooth transition of power. This is the role that Egypt should be playing," the source said.

Egypt has also made it clear to all parties concerned that it does not welcome Arafat's burial on Egyptian territory under any condition. "This is out of the question. Why should Egypt entertain this problematic situation?" asked an official Egyptian source rhetorically.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul- Gheit also responded to reporters' questions regarding the possibility of having Arafat buried in Egypt. "Never, never, never," was what he said on Monday. "Arafat is a Palestinian leader, and he belongs to Palestine."

Sources, however, have indicated that, upon the Palestinian leader's death, his funeral service will be held in Cairo . (see story pp.6&7)

Abul-Gheit and Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman had been scheduled to go to Israel today to pursue a joint Israeli-Palestinian implementation of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, with or without Arafat. The visit was delayed yesterday in view of the rapid developments vis-ˆ-vis Arafat's condition, and indications that the Palestinian leader would be declared dead within the next few days.

On Tuesday, Palestinian diplomatic sources in Cairo were indicating that a decision on removing Arafat from life-support machines could be taken within three days, in light of the high level Palestinian delegation's trip to Paris to visit the dying president, and discuss the next move with his medical team and French authorities.

Egypt is, however, pursuing sufficient Israeli assurances that Arafat would be given a decent burial ceremony, and that Mahmoud Abbas would be able to peacefully ascend to power, an informed Egyptian source told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Earlier this week, Presidential Adviser Osama El-Baz conducted telephone consultations with Abbas. Sources said El-Baz conveyed Egypt's full support for the Palestinians' right to a peaceful transition of power, in order to pursue their efforts to negotiate a secure Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories.

Early next month, Abul-Gheit and Suleiman are planning to conduct their much-delayed visit to Israel. Along with visiting Tel Aviv, the two senior Egyptian officials are also planning to go to Ramallah for talks with Abbas and Qurei.

On the Iraqi front, meanwhile, Egyptian diplomats have been working hard to prepare for a foreign ministers level conference on Iraq that should bring together the Group of Neighbouring States (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Egypt), the G8, the secretaries- general of the UN, the League of Arab States and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, as well as representatives of China and the Arab Troika -- Bahrain, Tunisia, and Algeria.

The draft document that was proposed by Egypt, and circulated to the invited participants, has been subject to detailed and lengthy discussions at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry over the past few days. Informed sources said the essential features of the document that will be presented to the 23 November conference in Sharm El- Sheikh remain the same: underlining Iraq's territorial unity and ethnic integrity; denouncing violence in Iraq without explicitly naming either Iraqis or foreigners as being responsible for it; and supporting the elections scheduled to take place under the auspices of the UN in Iraq next January.

As in the original, the revised document, which was reviewed on Monday by Abul-Gheit and his interim Iraqi counterpart Houchiar Zebari in Cairo, gives only indirect recognition to the many Iraqi political forces that oppose the current interim government. "But it is made clear by the document that all rational political forces on the scene in Iraq should be included in an Iraqi political process," Abul-Gheit said during a joint press conference with Zebari.

"The important thing now is the consensus that emerged during these discussions that the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting will not be a one-off event. There will be a follow-up mechanism to this conference," one Egyptian source said.

According to Iraqi sources as well, securing a follow-up mechanism to the Sharm El-Sheikh conference would give the international community direct access to the developing situation in Iraq.

As for the Iraqi opposition, non- governmental Iraqi sources said that a potential across-the-board meeting for all Iraqi forces was proposed by the Arab League, and is being contemplated by these forces.

The immediate concern for Egyptian diplomacy, however, is related to the current developments in Falluja. During his press conference with Zebari, Abul-Gheit made an appeal to spare innocent civilians.

Also on Monday, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa denounced the targeting of Falluja for its huge impact on civilians.

In his consecutive Monday press conferences with Abul-Gheit and Moussa, Zebari did not pay much attention to this concern. "We have already spent a long time negotiating with the peoples of Falluja, and now the government has to impose its control on Falluja, and the government has asked for the assistance of the multi-national forces," he said.

According to Egyptian and Arab diplomatic sources, at the end of the day the Sharm El-Sheikh conference may open the door for some improvement on the ground in Iraq if it manages to secure American sympathy to a less militaristic approach. However, these sources indicated that the chances of achieving this objective are not very high, precisely because of the discrepancy between the overall Arab stance that wants to avert the use of military force and promote the notion of Iraqi-Iraqi dialogue, and the position of the interim Iraqi government that wants to bring a rapid military end to any form of militant opposition.

In the words of one Egyptian official, "it might sound strange, but in the end, the situation on the Palestinian front might prove easier to contain than the situation on the Iraqi front."