Mission to Baghdad

A ground-breaking visit to Baghdad by Arab League Secretary-General is in the works. Dina Ezzat reports
It may be in a few days, it may be in a few weeks, but Arab League Secretary- General 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 decade 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 want 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 and 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 Kuwaitis 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 Palestinian 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 mission, 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 requested 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 continuation 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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