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Al-Ahram Weekly Online
3 - 9 January 2002
Issue No.567
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
Current issue | Previous issue | Site map
Mission to Baghdad
A ground-breaking visit to Baghdad by Arab League Secretary-General
Amr Moussa is in the works. Dina Ezzat reports
Amr Moussa
It may be in a few days, it may be in a few weeks, but Arab League
Secretary- General Amr Moussa is almost certain to arrive in Baghdad
for an official visit to the Iraqi capital. A fixed date for the
visit is yet to be decided but, as Arab diplomatic sources told Al-
Ahram Weekly, it is likely to take place sooner rather than later.
"The Arab summit is scheduled to open in Beirut on 25 March, so by that date Moussa
will have visited Baghdad," the source said.
The visit will be aimed at demonstrating Arab support for the Iraqi people, though
urging the Iraqi government to spare no effort in working with the Kuwaitis and Saudis
to settle the file of POWs and ending more than a d
ecade of hostility will be high on Moussa's agenda.
"This visit will be a message that all Arabs, without exception, are displeased by the
ongoing suffering of the Iraqi people and do not accept increasing this misery by any
measures under any name -- all Arab countries wa
nt to see the sanctions lifted from Iraq," one Arab League source said.
Iraq, a sensitive issue for Arab diplomacy since its invasion of Kuwait in August
1990, has yet to be fully re- integrated into the Arab fold. Diplomatic attempts to
improve the state of relations between Iraq and Kuwait,
in particular, and the other Arab countries in general, have yet to lead to a full
reconciliation. The last Arab summit in Amman dedicated attention to the matter and a
few lines were included in the Amman declaration an
d communiqué, urging the alleviation of the suffering of the Iraqi people who have
been living under stifling economic sanctions for over a decade. Despite this, no
agreement was reached on a potential reconciliation.
However, according to Assistant Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Bin Heli, a clear
Arab stance has emerged that supports ending the suffering of the Iraqi people. All
Arab countries, Bin Heli added, agree that there is
a need to resume the dialogue between the Iraqi government and the UN over the
inspection of Iraq's weapons programme and modifying the terms of the oil-for- food
agreement.
But much has changed since 11 September. Iraq is now facing overt threats of military
action from the US as Washington extends its anti- terrorist campaign.
Moussa has been in contact with several senior US, UN, European and other officials
over the past three months in a bid to explain that an attack against Iraq or, for
that matter, any other Arab country whose association
to the September attacks has not been proven, would ignite Arab public anger. "This is
the stance of all Arab states," Moussa declared.
"The upcoming visit by Moussa to Baghdad will aim to send a message to all concerned
that Arab countries are opposed to any possible attacks against Iraq," one Arab
diplomat commented. According to another: "Even the Kuwa
itis and Saudis, who make no secret of their discomfort with Saddam Hussein's regime,
say they are not comfortable with the idea of an attack against Iraq -- not with the
situation as volatile as it is in the occupied Pal
estinian territories and not with the images of misery in Iraq as flagrant as they
currently are."
Moussa's visit will be the first by an Arab League secretary-general to Baghdad since
Esmat Abdel-Meguid visited on 3 February 1999 in the wake of the US operation Desert
Fox which provoked such opposition across the Arab
world that an emergency Arab foreign ministers' meeting was convened.
"At that meeting, and during subsequent Arab meetings, Moussa, then Egyptian foreign
minister, was instrumental in mobilising a consensus among Arab states to oppose
further attacks against Iraq. It is now Moussa's missio
n, as Arab League secretary- general, to go to Baghdad and voice Arab opposition to an
attack against Iraq, especially in view of the human consequences that it would lead
to," commented one Egyptian diplomat who requeste
d anonymity.
Meanwhile, on 29 December Baghdad declared that 1.6 million children had died as a
result of sanctions since 1990. And unease about those sanctions is growing. In the
US, late last month, an American NGO opposed to the co
ntinuation of the sanctions regime sent a letter to US President
George W Bush expressing its dismay with US policy on Iraq. The use
of sanctions, the letter argued, amount to using a weapon of mass
destruction against the Iraqi people.
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