A row over the forthcoming Arab summit has further polarised Iraqi politics and raised regional tensions, writes Salah Nasrawi Iraq's embattled government is desperately trying to convince other Arab countries to turn down a motion by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to shelve an Arab summit meeting scheduled in Baghdad next month. The six-nation council has asked the Cairo-based Arab League to "cancel" its annual summit meeting, which this year is to be held in Baghdad, after Iraqi Shia government leaders supported the uprising by Bahrain's Shia majority who are demanding broader political participation in the affairs of the Sunni-ruled monarchy. Along with Iran and other Shia groups, such as the Lebanese Hizbullah, Iraq's Shia-led government blasted the GCC incursion into Bahrain last month, which was designed to assist the Sunni government's crackdown on the Shia opposition uprising. Bahrain's foreign minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Khalifa confirmed the GCC request for the summit meeting to be cancelled, but gave no further details. However, Arab diplomats said that the UAE envoy to the Arab League, Mohamed Al-Dhahiri, who had delivered the GCC request, had complained of Iraqi interference in Bahrain. The GCC move drew sharp criticism from the Iraqi government, which insisted that Arab governments had unanimously agreed to hold the summit in Baghdad last year under the Arab League's rotation system. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, who flew to Cairo last week to discuss the GCC move with Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, said that his country "is committed to holding the summit in Baghdad" on 10-11 May. On Wednesday, Moussa's deputy Ahmed bin Helli said Arab foreign ministers will meet on 15 May to set a new date for the summit, which should have among other items on its agenda naming a replacement for Moussa whose term in office expires next month. Later, Zebari said that while Iraq was prepared to postpone the summit in Baghdad, already delayed from March, it would not agree to cancel it entirely. On Monday, Moussa said he was holding consultations with Arab governments in order to postpone the summit meeting. Among the other items on the agenda of the May meeting is finding a replacement for Moussa as the League's secretary-general after his term expires on 15 May. The row is expected to stir new controversies over the role played by the League, already marred by inter-Arab disputes. Under the amended 1945 Arab League Charter, only Arab leaders are entitled to decide on the holding of a summit and to endorse a new secretary-general. Meanwhile, the leaders of several Arab countries are currently facing popular uprisings, and they may not be able to leave their countries to attend a meeting in May. Indeed, the Baghdad summit appeared to be doomed even before the Bahrain-Iraq dispute started, with Libya and Algeria both opposing the summit on the grounds that Iraq lacks sovereignty because it is still under US military occupation. Baghdad has played host to two key Arab summit meetings in the past. In 1978, under pressure from former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party, Arab leaders agreed to expel Egypt from the Arab League because of late Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat's peace overture with Israel. Saddam then used the second Baghdad summit meeting in May 1990 to rally Arab support for his regime in its confrontation with the West over its weapons' programme, later leading to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Iraqi leaders have pushed for this year's summit to be held in Baghdad because they believe that this would help Iraq to restore its regional position as a leading Arab country. They also want the summit to act as a showcase for the readiness of the Iraqi army and police, as the US prepares to withdraw its troops by the end of the year. Iraqi Shias now feel humiliated by the Gulf states' request to cancel the May summit, since they wanted it to be a venue in which they could reassure their Sunni Arab-dominated neighbours, who view their rise to power with suspicion and fear their growing ties with Shia Iran. Iraqi Kurds will also feel insulted by the GCC move because they will see it as an attempt to shun Kurdish Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, who would otherwise be the first ever non-ethnic Arab leader to chair an Arab summit. Zebari is also a Kurd, and he was supposed to chair the Arab foreign ministers' discussions in preparation for the summit. The request to cancel the summit meeting has already triggered bickering among rival Iraqi groups. The representatives of Iraq's Shia factions have warned the Arab League against bowing to GCC pressure, with the Baghdad media reporting on Monday that Mohamed Saeb Al-Daraji, a minister representing the radical Al-Sadr Trend, told the League's envoy to Iraq that "we are a democratically elected government, and we respect the people's right to self-determination," referring to Iraq's support for the Bahraini protesters. Meanwhile, Iyad Allawi, leader of the Sunni-dominated bloc in Iraq's parliament, said that he held Iraq's government responsible for "missing the chance to hold the Arab summit in Baghdad". In an interview with the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper on Friday, Allawi argued that the way the Iraqi government had dealt with the Bahrain crisis had "spurred calls that might lead Iraq to miss the chance of holding the Arab summit and enhance relations with Arab countries that supported the Iraqi people and cancelled Iraq's debts." Allawi's main ally, Iraqi parliamentary speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi, called the summit "very important for Iraq" and said that "calling off the summit is not acceptable to Iraq and will deeply affect Iraqi- Arab relations." "I think all Arab leaders should reconsider their stance on the summit because it is important to us and for them," he said. Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Iraqi Kurdish parliamentary bloc, told Radio Free Iraq that some Gulf states had been unfriendly towards Iraq from the outset and had used the Bahrain issue as a pretext to keep the Arab League from holding the summit in Baghdad. The spectre of a new sectarian conflict in Iraq over the GCC move is now looming and this will by no means be confined to the country's domestic politics, since the call for the summit's cancellation will be interpreted by Iraqi Shias as an attempt to isolate the Shias and prevent them from playing a leading role in the Middle East. Furthermore, it will also be seen as a means of pressuring Iraqi Shias to change their stance with regard to the Bahraini Shias, a crucial test to the Iraqi Shias' newly acquired power and whether they are prepared to deploy this in defense of other Shia communities in the region when in need. If the current dispute persists and Iraqi Shias feel they are being ostracised, they may be left with no other option but to become more sectarian and entrenched and to move closer to Iran. What seems to be the usual inter-Arab bickering could also turn into a wider sectarian conflict fuelling the Shia-Sunni discontent in the Gulf at a time of rising regional tensions. On Monday, Bahraini Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa said that his government was determined to crush the Shia protesters, whom he accused of conspiring against the Gulf kingdom. Bahraini foreign minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa also hinted on Monday that Saudi-led Gulf troops could stay in the country for some time, only leaving when external threats to the Gulf Arab countries from Shia Iran were seen to be gone. Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned of "divisions between Iranians and Arabs and between Shias and Sunnis" in the region. The commander of Iran's armed forces, Major-General Ataollah Salehi, also warned that the Iranian military was "ready to help its friends in various areas, including the cultural, political and military spheres." Arab summits have sometimes been dismissed as opportunities for worthless chat, but the present quarrel over the Baghdad meeting shows how rising sectarianism may be enough to turn politics in the Gulf into a nasty blood sport.
