In Iraq, Arabs could confront and simultaneously communicate with Iran. Dina Ezzat reports from Baghdad on how this juggling act might be achieved In Sulimaniya, in north Iraq, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa will today meet Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, drawing to a close a series of intensive talks Moussa has been holding in Iraq with top Iraqi officials, political figures and leaders of minorities and tribes. Moussa's four-day visit to Baghdad was designed, as he and his Iraqi interlocutors agreed, to announce planned -- or at least promised -- closer Arab communication with Iraq on the eve of an upcoming massive withdrawal of US troops from Iraq after six years of occupation that began with the war launched on 19 March 2003. A sign of the upcoming closer Arab engagement of Iraq was manifested when Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a joint press conference with Moussa in Baghdad on Tuesday that his country is "determined to observe its rotating role of chairing the Arab summit" in 2010 and that Talabani "would brief the Doha Arab summit" later this month on its relevant plans for this presidency. Even if Iraq did not host the summit, in view of the obvious security concerns, it would still take the chairmanship over from Qatar in an event that could convene in the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League. The more crucial sign of Arab engagement with Iraq is the support Arab capitals, especially Cairo, Riyadh and Damascus, would lend to the rehabilitation of senior cadres of the formally ruling but now banned Baath Party into the Iraqi government and other key institutions including the military and police. These capitals have played host to some of the most senior Baathist figures and are currently encouraging meetings between these figures and representatives of the Iraqi government. Last week, Iraqi Minister for Displaced People and Migrants Abdel-Samad Sultan toured several Arab countries, including Egypt, to lobby the return of some of these officials. Upon his arrival in Baghdad Monday evening and following his talks with Al-Maliki on Tuesday, Moussa announced support for "all-inclusive reconciliation that would abandon ethnic and faction-based bias and acknowledge Iraqis on the strict basis of citizenship." Meanwhile, other signs of Arab engagement of Iraq should include the upgrade of the level of representation in the nine currently "operating" Arab embassies in Baghdad and the prompt operation of embassies of other Arab countries -- maybe at the highest possible ambassadorial level. They should also include the prompt convocation of a meeting at the Arab League between representatives of the economic and development bodies affiliated to the Arab organisation and a high-level delegation of the Iraqi government likely to be chaired by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Rafei Al-Eissawi. According to the demand put to Moussa in Baghdad this week by Saleh Al-Motlak, leader of the National Front for Dialogue, other signs of closer cooperation should include vigorous participation of the Arab League in the preparations for and supervision of the next Iraqi legislative elections "in order to ward off factionalism and prevent it from re-infesting the Iraqi political scene." Statements issued by Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel-Mahdi during a joint press conference with Moussa in Baghdad on Tuesday show that closer cooperation and coordination are unlikely to include any presence of Arab troops in Iraq to provide military support to the state under reconstruction as US troops gradually pull out. Since the US invasion and subsequent occupation -- now legally qualified as presence -- of Iraq, most Arab countries who boycotted the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, have given the new Iraqi regime a cold shoulder. They did so even as they tolerated, upon an appeal by Kuwait, the Arab presence of the representatives of the new Iraqi regime in the Arab League. A keen Iraqi outreach exercise prompted a slightly warmer rapport but this was tragically interrupted when the head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Baghdad was kidnapped by a group that Egypt overtly blamed Iran for supporting. The envoy has never been found. The ascension to power of a pro-Iranian government in Iraq further downgraded the profile of Arab-Iraqi relations. And it was this year, as violence receded in Iraq and the Iranian influence in the country exceeded all limits that key Arab capitals could tolerate, it was decided to re-engage Iraq, with the support of the US. In Iraq, Arab countries are now hoping to check what they fear is unchecked Iranian influence. According to some Sunni Iraqi figures, it would take much hard work from the Arab world to level up to the strong Iranian presence in Iraq. Iraqi officials, who are happy to see signs of Arab interest, are courteously telling Arab capitals and visiting Arab officials, Moussa included, that Iraq has "special relations with Iran" but that these ties should not compromise Iraq's commitment to being a crucial Arab player. As such, Iraqi officials say that Baghdad is willing to facilitate some form of Arab-Iranian dialogue. "Dialogue is what we promote when the mood is ready and the scene is set," Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari said Tuesday. Judging by the mood in many an Arab diplomatic quarter, it is confrontation rather than dialogue with Iran that some Arab capitals are keen on. Arab, including Egyptian, officials blame Iran for inciting and financing sectarian strife in Iraq as a first step towards expanding its influence across the Arab Mashreq especially in countries with considerable Shia populations. However, the doors before dialogue are not completely shut, as evidenced by the recent visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Menoshaher Muttaki to Riyadh where he was received by the Saudi monarch. For purposes of confrontation and for those of dialogue, Iraq will remain the key scene of Arab -- and possibly American -- encounters with Iran.
