Iyad Allawi's regional tour seeks to confer legitimacy on the Iraqi interim government he heads, reports Omayma Abdel-Latif Iraq's interim prime minister makes no secret of the objectives behind his current Arab tour. Iyad Allawi is seeking Arab backing to "defeat the forces of evil", the term he uses to describe those who attack Iraqi and US targets. Allawi's tour is his first since he took office on 28 June. He arrived in Cairo yesterday on a two-day visit, and was met by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. He is due to meet with President Hosni Mubarak today. The Iraqi prime minister's visit coincides with a second Iraq-related event hosted by Cairo -- the sixth meeting of Iraq's neighbouring countries, which is the first to be held since power was transferred to the interim government. In his opening statement Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Ghait called on all parties "not to interfere in Iraq's affairs" and pledged backing for the interim government's efforts to fulfil its political and security responsibilities. Iraqi officials, however, want action rather than words. On Wednesday Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, told reporters that "some proposals about the security situation and border monitoring with neighbouring countries" had been submitted to the meeting and that Iraq expected a positive response. While most commentators insist the obvious goal of Allawi's regional tour is to win backing for policies intended to deal with the calamitous security situation there is more to the tour than just that. It is increasingly being seen as a test of the authority and reputation of Iraq's interim ruler. The endgame, says one Iraqi analyst, is to "give Iraq's new rulers a chance to draw a line under the recent past and show who is in charge of the country". Iraqi sources close to Allawi told Al- Ahram Weekly that one of the primary goals of the tour is to mark the beginning of a new chapter in Iraq-Arab relations. The hope is that old rifts between Iraq and other Arab states will be healed. "Allawi wants to assure Arab governments that a real transfer of power has taken place in Iraq," says Ibrahim Al- Janabi, head of the Iraqi Information Authority and one of Allawi's senior aides. "The message is that this government is in control and that Iraq's state institutions -- including the army and police force -- are being rehabilitated." Yet many remain sceptical. That US strikes against Iraqi targets -- the latest took place this week in Falluja -- continue only deepens Arab perceptions that the US still has its hands on the steering wheel despite Allawi's insistence that his government is in control. It is a situation that leaves Arab governments in an awkward position. "Arab governments," says Wamidh Nadhmi, a prominent Iraqi analyst, "have to walk a fine line between backing the interim government and being seen as assisting the US occupation of the country." Iraqi officials, increasingly annoyed with the criticisms directed against them, plead that the government be given a chance to "stand on its feet and prove that it can control the situation", as Al-Janabi put it. Two of the most contentious issues likely to be raised in the discussions will involve the possibility of sending Arab troops to Iraq (though not from Iraq's immediate neighbours) and the need to establish a national dialogue. The Iraqi prime minister went public with his request for Egyptian troops to be sent to Iraq as part of a peace- keeping mission. Egypt's official response came from presidential spokesman Maged Abdel-Fattah who, in press statements this week, said "Egypt will enter in an open dialogue with Allawi to see the ways in which it can provide support to Iraq at this critical stage." "The Egyptian government will assess its position," he said, "in light of the security situation." But it is the deteriorating security situation, coupled with concerns that the action might serve the American agenda in Iraq, which makes many governments reluctant to commit troops. Egypt should not, thinks Nadhmi, "object in principle to sending troops to Iraq, but its consent should be conditioned on all foreign troops being pulled out of the country". "I think what would be really embarrassing is for the Egyptians to send troops to be put under the command of some American general." Yet the Iraqi government has said repeatedly that it is too early to ask foreign troops to leave. Most analysts believe Arab governments are likely to press some of their own demands on the Iraqi government, not least the setting of a timetable for the withdrawal of the foreign troops. The Iraqi government is also likely to face demands that a process of dialogue be opened with forces opposed to the occupation, including armed resistance groups. Allawi's greatest task, though, Nadhmi believes, will be to persuade Arab governments that Iraq's own interests top his own interim government's agenda.
