US coaches Arab overtures to Iraq
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO - More than five years after the United States-led invasion and
occupation of Iraq, ambassadors from Arab countries are flocking to Baghdad.
Egyptian commentators have said the timing of the move suggests pressure from
Washington, rather than a claimed desire for strengthened bilateral ties, is
fueling the diplomatic drive.
"Arab governments originally wanted a full withdrawal of foreign forces and a
stable security environment before sending ambassadors," Ahmed Thabet,
political science professor at Cairo University, told Inter Press Service. "Yet
the pending US-Iraq security agreement promises to turn the current military
occupation of Iraq into a constitutionally sanctioned one."
In early October, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and Petroleum
Minister Sameh Fahmi visited the Iraqi capital, with the stated aim of
improving the two countries' long-stalled bilateral relationship. The trip
represented the first by an Egyptian foreign minister since 1990, when Cairo
severed diplomatic relations with Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the wake of the
latter's invasion of Kuwait.
At a joint press conference with Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari, Aboul-Gheit
announced that Cairo intended to restore full diplomatic relations with Iraq
and to soon dispatch an ambassador to Baghdad. He went on to say that Egypt
also planned to embark on closer economic cooperation with Iraq, particularly
on the reconstruction of the war-torn country's energy sectors.
"Egypt has a confirmed desire to build a strong and active Iraqi-Egyptian
relationship," Aboul-Gheit told reporters.
On October 14, he reiterated Egypt's intention to step up its diplomatic
presence in Iraq, noting that construction of a new Egyptian embassy on the
banks of Baghdad's Tigris River was close to completion.
"The situation in Iraq is stabilizing gradually and it demands that a country
like Egypt, which has interests with Iraq, begin to give itself a presence on
the ground," Aboul-Gheit was quoted as saying by Egypt's state news agency
MENA. He added, however, that full diplomatic relations "would not be resumed
overnight".
Ever since the 2003 US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Washington has
urged Sunni Arab states to normalize diplomatic relations with the government
in Baghdad. Until recently, however, Arab capitals - distrustful of the
Shi'ite-led, Iran-friendly Iraqi government - have been reluctant to comply.
Arab governments have said they would only dispatch ambassadors if Iraq adopted
a system of power sharing more favorable to its Sunni Muslim population, and if
foreign troops were withdrawn from the country. Neither of these conditions has
been met.
Arab governments have also expressed concern for the safety of their
representatives. Such worries were largely vindicated in 2005, when Egyptian
diplomat Iamb al-Sheriff - tentatively named Egypt's ambassador to Iraq - was
kidnapped and presumed killed.
Despite these stumbling blocks, Egypt is not the only Arab state to make
diplomatic overtures towards Baghdad.
In August, Bahrain appointed its first ambassador to Iraq since 2003, followed
a month later by the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait followed in late October,
sending its first ambassador to Baghdad since the 1990 Iraqi invasion. Jordan,
too, has recently named an ambassador, although he has yet to officially assume
his post and Saudi Arabia has said it will open an embassy in the near future.
In mid-October, even Syria - frequently accused by Washington of not doing
enough to curb the flow of anti-occupation fighters into Iraq from its
territory - sent its first ambassador to Baghdad in decades. Diplomatic
relations between Syria and Iraq, long ruled by rival factions of the pan-Arab
Baa Party, had been frozen for the most part since Sad dam Hussein assumed the
presidency in 1979.
According to some Egyptian commentators, the newfound Arab enthusiasm for
establishing embassies in Iraq can be mainly attributed to pressure from
Washington.
"The rush to send ambassadors comes as a result of US dictates," Abel-Haling
Handily, political analyst and editor-in-chief of independent weekly Sout
al-Umma told IPS.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he said, "has consistently pushed
Washington's Arab allies in the region - Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf States - to
establish embassies in Baghdad with the stated aim of 'countering Iranian
influence' in Iraq".
Iran - a Shi'ite Persian power as opposed to a Sunni Arab one - boasts strong
ties with post-war Iraq, including a large and fully operational embassy in
Baghdad.
"Unlike the Arab states, Iran already has tremendous assets in Iraq, including
allied political and religious movements, armed groups, enormous bilateral
trade and a shared border," said Kandil. "Since the US invasion, Iraq has
turned from a competitor of Iran to an Iranian sphere of influence."
Kandil went on to question official claims that the Arab diplomatic drive
towards Baghdad was intended to preserve Iraq's 'Arab identity'.
"I'm afraid it's too late for that," he said. "The post-occupation constitution
states that Iraq is a Muslim country, but not an Arab one. It also refers to
Iraq's Sunni Muslim population - not Iraq itself - as part of the wider Arab
world.
"What's more", added Kandil, "the Arab League opened a representative office in
Baghdad, which, notably, it only does in non-Arab countries".
Thabet agreed that recent Arab moves to establish diplomatic ties with Iraq
were largely the result of US prompting.
"By normalizing relations with Baghdad, Arab governments can claim they are
supporting their Sunni Arab brethren and contesting Persian influence in Iraq,"
he said. "But they're actually doing it to please the US and its ally Israel.
"Many Iraqis see this new Arab diplomatic drive as against their national
interests," added Thabet. "They see it as little more than a US attempt to
legitimize the occupation and bolster Arab support for the unpopular government
in Baghdad."
Thabet went on to say that some Iraqis fear recent Arab diplomatic activity
"could eventually lead to the replacement of foreign occupation troops with a
pan-Arab peacekeeping force to police Iraq".
Thabet also questioned the wisdom of the move in light of Iraq's still
explosive security environment.
"The security situation in Iraq remains highly volatile, with almost daily acts
of violence," he said. "Egypt's stated intention to send an ambassador now
indicates it still doesn't understand the real situation inside the country - a
mistake that led to the disappearance of its last ambassador to Iraq."
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