Arab foreign ministers agree to open an Arab League office in Iraq. But will this be enough to preserve the country's Arab identity, asks Magda El-Ghitany For the first time ever, Arab foreign ministers felt obliged to discuss means to preserve the Arab identity of a state that was a major founder of the 60-year-old Arab League. In addition to their usual busy agenda, which included the aftermath of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Somalia's current crisis and the situation in Darfur, top diplomats of the League member states convened last Thursday to emphasise that Iraq -- with "all its peoples" -- "was, is, and will always be an integrated part of the Arab nation; nothing can make it apart." Days before the foreign ministerial meeting, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa expressed concerns over Iraq's draft constitution, warning that it "ambiguously" refers to the Arab identity of Iraq. Unlike the 1970 constitution, the third and the fourth provisions of the current Iraqi draft constitution -- expected to be presented for referendum mid-October -- states that only Iraq's "Arabs are part of the Arab nation", thus defining them as a minority that lives among a majority of "non-Arabs"-- the Kurds, the Turkomans, and the Assyrians. It recognises both Arabic and Kurdish as the country's official languages, instead of merely Arabic. Further, it grants some Iraq regions the right to adopt other languages as their official ones, if they are spoken by a majority of inhabitants. Such a blunt fragmentation of Iraq's people into Arabs and non-Arabs, and the marginalisation of Iraq's ancient Arab identity, led Moussa to warn that the draft constitution does not "meet the Arabs' demands" to clearly verify Iraq's Arab identity. He added that the draft's federal nature is "dangerous" and might constitute a fertile climate for "chaos". Concurring with Moussa, Arab voices calling upon concerned Iraqi parties to underscore Iraq's Arab identity in the draft constitution have become more vociferous. In his address to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- made up of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab of Emirates -- Mohamed Bin Mabrouk Al-Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, emphasised the vital necessity for the draft to "preserve the Arab identity" of Iraq. Yet, such concerns face opposition. While describing any additional provision that emphasises Iraq's Arab identity as "unnecessary and unfair to Iraq's religious and ethnic minorities", Iraqi President Jalal Talabani accused Arab states of "gross negligence" in their dealings with Iraq. Talabani added that while Iraq "stood with [its] Arab brethren in their hard times"-- for example, sending a message of condolence to Egypt following the 23 July Sharm El-Sheikh bombings -- Arab states were remiss in their support for Iraq following the deadly stampede of Baghdad's Al-A'ema Bridge, which cost the lives of 1,000 Iraqis. "Iraq is not going to starve to death because of the absence of assistance from Arab countries," Talabani said, nonetheless. The Iraqi president noted that Arab states were offering very "little for Iraq when they don't send ambassadors to represent them". In an attempt to protect Iraq's Arab identity from being blurred, top Arab diplomats called upon Iraqi officials to "have Iraq's Arab identity verified in the draft constitution". According to Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, there are no intentions to strip Iraq of its Arab identity. "Iraq's Arab identity is meant to last forever. It is [Iraq's] definite destiny," Zebari told reporters following the ministerial meetings. Meanwhile, at the end of their convention, Moussa announced that Arab foreign ministers "were informed" that another provision that highlights Iraq as a founding member of the Arab League would be included in the draft constitution. In return, in a show of solidarity, Arab foreign ministers expressed their "deep sorrow and support of Iraq", following the stampede tragedy they welcomed the opening of an Arab League office in Baghdad, condemned "all terrorist attacks that target civilians in Iraq", stating their countries' readiness to send diplomatic missions to Iraq, and underlining the "necessary security measures needed" to protect them. Yet, although the ministerial meeting seemed to end with a sense of ease, many high-ranking Iraqi officials insist that not all Iraqis are Arabs and thus strident concessions on this issue of Iraq's Arab identity as a state are not in order. "Iraq is a multinational state. In addition to Arabs, it embraces people of multiple ethnic origins -- Turkomans, Assyrians, and Kurds. It would never be fair to define them as Arabs while they are actually not," Hazem Al-Youssefi, representative of the Kurdish National Union in Cairo, told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to Al-Youssefi, there are dozens of Arab state constitutions -- Sudanese, Tunisian, Somalian and Algerian -- that do not include a single provision that refers to an Arab identity. "Why then this insistence on demanding such an indication from Iraq?" he asked. Further, Al-Youssefi considered Arab objections to the draft constitution as "an intervention in Iraq's domestic affairs". Instead of focussing now on the details of the draft, Arab states "should have provided Iraq with the necessary political and financial support to save it, throughout the past two years," Al-Youssefi stated. That current "official" stance has "critically threatened Iraq's Arab identity in an unprecedented way, since the establishment of the Iraqi state in 1921", according to Walid Kazziha, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo. The main threat, Kazziha believes, is the US vision of Iraq as a fragmented society made up of various, non-related ethnic, religious groups. Such a vision attempts to underscore ethnic differences, which weakened the "essence of Arabism" that was previously shared by the Shias, Kurds and other Iraqi groups. "This, however, does not mean that ordinary Iraqis do not feel like Arabs any longer. The point is that it is the organised political parties who are opposing the Arab identity of Iraq, and are supported by states such as Iran, are the ones who mostly affect the current political climate," Kazziha told the Weekly. Though it "is not enough", establishing an Arab League office in Baghdad and sending Arab ambassadors there can still constitute a "good start" by the Arabs in order to reinforce Iraq's Arab identity among Iraqis. "It would not be the right decision not to support the Arab trend in Iraq, for there are still many segments in the Iraqi society that strongly believe in the Arab essence of a unified Iraq. Arab states cannot ignore them. They should exert maximum efforts to cement their ties with such segments," Kazziha notes. Part of this effort is to take part in rebuilding Iraq's civil society. "Iraq now is like a courtyard; there are various competitors -- the Arabs, the Americans, and the Iranians," Kazziha stated. "The only winner will be the one who will gain the trust of ordinary Iraqis; this is what the Arabs should work from now to attain."
