"It is not just about Iraq"
The Arab world stands on the brink of disaster, Iraqi Foreign Minister Nagui Sabri told Dina Ezzat
Iraqi Foreign Minister Nagui Sabri was subject to non-stop media attention during last week's Arab summit in Sharm El-Sheikh. Every time Sabri moved, he found himself surrounded by an omnipresent entourage of reporters and TV crews, cataloguing his movements to and from meeting rooms under a hail of questions.
The media attention was no surprise. Iraq is bracing for a potential military attack by the US and some of its allies. The objective of this attack, as declared by Washington, is to remove the Iraqi regime and its members -- and Sabri might well be included.
But if this threat is plaguing Iraq's high-profile foreign minister, it does not show. For those who have traced his circuit of international conferences in the two years since his appointment, Sabri may look deeply concerned. However, he is maintaining an impressive poker face.
"We know that an attack might be around the corner," Sabri told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We are hoping for peace, but we know that this American administration, with encouragement from Israel and the Israeli lobby in the US, is gearing up for war against Iraq." In an exclusive interview, Sabri conceded that his country is no match for the world's only superpower. "But this is only as far as arms go. As far as the will to survive and resist is concerned, we are much stronger. We have the will to defend ourselves. We have the will to survive and we will fight the battle if we have to fight it."
Adopting an analytical approach to the current standoff between Iraq and the US -- "not the UN, as Washington likes to claim" -- Sabri argues that this crisis "is not just about Iraq". "It is true that the American administration, and Israel, are hoping to attack Iraq. But what they have in mind goes far beyond Iraq," he said, adding that he believes that war against Iraq is "in fact war against the Arab world."
"This is not just sloganeering -- not at all," he said. "And it is not an attempt on our part to win the sympathy of Arabs, because we know very well that we have the sympathy of all the honourable and decent Arabs. But this is what the situation is about."
In Sabri's analysis, the US is aiming to attack Iraq in order to divide it into smaller countries before moving on to other Gulf states with the same goal in mind. This approach, he said, would then be applied to the rest of the Arab world. "They have said it plain and clear: they want to reshape the Arab world. They want to erase a few countries, create new countries and divide some countries. The end result will be 'a new Middle East' that follows the US and obeys Israel. This is what we are defying."
Addressing the current division in views among Arab states about the best collective Arab approach towards the Iraqi crisis, Sabri had only one answer: "Arabs do not need to defend Iraq. Iraqis will defend Iraq. Arabs need to defend themselves."
"The entire Arab region is now standing on the threshold of total chaos," Sabri said. "We are faced with a new colonial attack similar to the one launched during the Crusades -- they actually slipped and called it a crusade," he added. "The end result of this new attack will be the re- colonisation of the Arab world. They want not only to control Arab oil and wealth but to control the Arabs' human potential. They say they want to encourage development and democracy, when in fact they just want us to be weak and submissive. They do not want us to have our own will."
As far as Sabri is concerned, the result of the American plans -- or, as he likes to call them, "silly dreams" -- are the furthest thing from the peace and stability they promise. "They do not just tell the Arab world that they want to attack Iraq. They say we will attack Iraq and then bring peace to the Middle East. But what kind of peace could be expected from an administration that calls someone like the current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- a butcher, to say the least -- a man of peace?"
Does Sabri believe an attack is inevitable? "Iraq has been under attack for over a decade," he retorted. "For the last 12 years we have been under attack. We have been subjected to military attacks and economic sanctions. We have been resisting and we will continue to do so. We have the will to resist and to survive. We will not be eaten up as some think, fear, or even wish."
The one thing about which Sabri did not want to comment is the outcome of the Arab summit that convened on Saturday in Sharm El-Sheikh. Speaking about the summit's focus on Iraq, Sabri remarked: "It is good that Arabs thought they wanted to talk about Iraq. But I believe they also needed to talk about themselves, because it is not only Iraq that is faced with risks."
As for the resolution adopted by the summit stipulating that all Arab states should refrain from taking part in any military hostilities against Iraq, Sabri was not willing to express either enthusiasm or disappointment. The foreign minister, who has taken part in several Arab meetings during the last two years, seems unsurprised by such a mild Arab resolution. "Well, here we are," he said, blandly. "The summit convened to say that Arab countries reject the attack, as they said last year in the Beirut summit, and that they should refrain from taking part in this attack. I suppose this is a step forward."
Smiling and offering a cup of coffee was Sabri's response to a question about the feasibility of an impartial Arab role in the military action against Iraq given the fact that most of Iraq's Gulf neighbours, including Bahrain -- the current chair of the Arab summit -- are playing host to hundreds of thousands of American troops and huge military facilities.
When asked to compare the active European opposition to war with the Arab world's less vocal opposition, Sabri looked at his glass of water with the expression of someone trying to think of something nice to say: "This summit showed that the Arab world rejects war. I suppose that by doing so, Arabs put themselves at the forefront of international opposition to war."
International opposition, he argued, is not just about a moral case against war or a rejection of US hegemony. "When Germany and France show such strong opposition to the US plans to attack Iraq, it is not a strictly ethical stand they are taking. It is also a self-interested position that they are adopting," he said. According to Sabri, the Germans and French know that once the US gains control of all of the oil reservoirs in the Gulf, it will "not shy away from determining the amount and prices of oil it will supply to other industrial nations." In other words, he said, "if allowed to get away with controlling the entire oil wealth of the Middle East, the US will be deciding the pace of development for other industrial countries. Obviously, this is not in line with the interests of these states."
"[The US has] a big scheme that focusses primarily on the Arab world but also aims to bolster US hegemony," Sabri said.
What is the way out? Shrugging his shoulders, Sabri answered: "The Iraqi people will resist."
Throughout the two-day ministerial meeting and the one-day summit, Sabri was not easily roused by reporters' questions. However, in a short press conference that he gave after the summit concluded, Sabri seemed unable to control his temper when asked about a proposal presented to the summit by the United Arab Emirates suggesting that the only way to avoid war is for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to go into exile, with adequate privileges and guarantees, while the Iraqi people elect a new leader. "These are only dirty and silly ideas promoted by sick-minded people," he snapped during the conference. His face visibly reddening with anger, Sabri added: "The summit did not even look at these dirty and trivial ideas." He suggested that such a proposal could only be "the outcome of a scheme hatched by the US and Israel" and declared that Iraq will resist such a proposal just as it will resist a US attack.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 6 - 12 March 2003 (Issue No. 628)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/628/sc4.htm