Collective Arab efforts to address the ongoing crises in Iraq and Syria are growing more intensive, reports Dina Ezzat Delegations begin arriving in Cairo tonight to take part in the three-day meeting organised by the Arab League to examine ways to end the bloody conflict that has for two years compounded the sufferings of a country already wracked by the hardships of invasion. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari is expected to join 80 Iraqi officials and representatives of Sunni, Shia, Kurdish and other ethnic and religious factions at the Arab League Conference on Iraq, which opens on Saturday at the league's headquarters. The foreign ministers of member states of the Arab Ministerial Committee on Iraq, which includes Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt and Algeria -- the current chair of the Arab summit -- are expected to attend. Invitations have also been extended to the foreign ministers of Turkey and Iran, members of the Iraq Neighbourhood Group. UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan will send an envoy to the meeting. In the run up to Saturday's opening Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa will host a consultative meeting between participating foreign ministers on Friday night, said Mohamed Al-Khamelishi, Arab League assistant secretary-general. Alaa Rouchdi, Moussa's spokesman, said the Arab League secretary-general will also hold advance meetings with members and heads of the Iraqi delegations as well as with the 22 permanent representatives to the league. "It must be made clear the meeting that opens on Saturday is not the national accord conference Secretary-General Moussa proposed. This is a preparatory meeting to which the Arab League has invited key political forces to send representatives in order to agree on an agenda, venue and time for the national accord conference," stressed Hesham Youssef, Moussa's chief of staff. "Nobody should expect this meeting to deliver a pact of national accord at the end of the three days. What we are hoping is to get all the parties talking in the hope of creating a common agenda for the future." Not that anyone expects it to be easy given the number of unresolved differences between the parties. Members of various Iraqi delegations insist their acceptance of the invitation to come to Cairo does not signal a change in their positions and they have made no promises to accept any compromises. Alongside the contentious issue of the scope and role of American forces Iraqi delegates are expected to discuss the possibility of negotiating with militant Iraqi groups that have been targeting Iraqi police and soldiers. The question of whether or not to re-engage former Baath Party members who were not close to the higher echelons of the toppled Iraqi regime, especially in the army and intelligence, is also likely to be on the agenda. It is, as one Iraqi politician pointed out, a particularly contentious point "not just between Sunnis and Shias but even among Shias themselves". The abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the majority Sunni, in US-controlled and Iraqi-run prisons is also expected to be discussed. The role of Iraq's neighbours, especially Iran with its growing influence over Iraq's Shia and Syria, alleged to support Sunni militants, could emerge as a key issue dividing not just the Iraqi delegations but participating foreign ministers. Sources within the Arab League say are keen to avoid any confusing of issues and insist the ongoing crisis between Washington and Damascus be dealt with separately. Yet with the expected presence of Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa in Cairo developments in the Syrian file are certain to be discussed between Moussa, Abdel-Aziz Belkhadem, the representative of the Algerian president, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit. A senior Arab diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly that while it is unlikely that Detlev Mehlis, head of the international investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, will agree to Syria's proposal that he question six Syrian security officials at the headquarters of the Arab League, there is a growing possibility that a deal acceptable to both Syria and the Metlev can be brokered. The UN office in Vienna is now being proposed as a possible venue for the interrogations rather than the Monteverdi Hotel in Beirut, the headquarters of the investigating team. "We do not want to get bogged down with the issue of the venue of the investigation. What counts is to get to the truth of who killed Hariri," said Abul- Gheit. Several Arab countries are likely to use the opportunity of talks with Al-Sharaa to encourage Syria to refrain from issuing provocative statements on the role of the UN investigator or the Lebanese government, accused by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in a major political address last Thursday of hatching plots against Damascus on foreign orders. "It is important that Arab countries do not become enmeshed in unnecessary confrontations. Egypt is doing its best to promote closer Arab rapport on all fronts," Abul-Gheit said this week. While in Cairo Al-Sharaa is expected to hear a great deal of plain-speaking from Abul-Gheit and other Arab officials. The Syrian foreign minister will also be briefed on the latest round of Egyptian-Saudi efforts to broker a deal between Damascus and Washington. On Tuesday President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Ben Abdel-Aziz discussed the escalating rhetoric between the two capitals and agreed it would be in Syria's interest to show more flexibility, a line supported by the Arab League. "The situation in the region is very problematic. It does not serve the interests of the Arab peoples and we are trying very hard to push developments back onto a more positive track," said Moussa. (see pp.10&11)
