An international conference on Iraq this week reiterated support to the violence-wracked nation but with no concrete pledges, writes Salah Hemeid Representatives of Iraq's neighbours and other key world nations met again 22 September in New York seeking ways to help in the long-term recovery efforts for the war- ravaged nation. United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon, who co-chaired the ministerial session with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, urged Iraq's neighbours to curb the activities of people within their borders who undermine Iraq and to help Iraq's government achieve national reconciliation. "There is a close relationship between Iraqi national dialogue and regional cooperation," Ban said, in his opening remarks to the closed meeting, according to a transcript furnished by his office. "For the stability of Iraq," he said, "regional countries have an important role in securing their borders, confronting those who work to destabilise Iraq from within their territories, promoting religious and ethnic tolerance and developing healthy economic exchange." The one-day meeting focussed on last month's Security Council Resolution 1770 calling for expanding the UN's presence in Iraq. Also on the agenda was the International Compact on Iraq, a five-year economic and political recovery strategy adopted last May in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Both the resolution and the plan call for the UN to oversee a five-year plan to stabilise the country on the political, economic and security fronts as well as support the Baghdad government's efforts to curb sectarian strife through an inclusive political dialogue and national reconciliation. With such a loaded agenda, the meeting served as a test on the international stage for Al-Maliki, who has inspired limited trust with countries in the region and whose leadership has been questioned by Washington and other key world players. While Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours still look to Al-Maliki as a strong ally to Shia Iran, Washington has been showing increasing frustration with his deadlocked central government, especially its lack of measures to speed up national reconciliation efforts. In his turn, Al-Maliki tried to reassure the participants that Iraq was gaining stability. He boasted that the security and economic situations have improved and urged them to back his government "because it was trying to end a religious war on their behalf". "Of course, there are still pockets of terrorist militias who are working in the shadows," he added, "but they all are being pursued by Iraqi forces." Later at a press conference Al-Maliki said a larger UN presence in Iraq would contribute to the process of national reconciliation. It is unlikely, however, that participants at the meeting were moved by Al-Maliki's argument. While they renewed their pledges to help Iraq, no concrete steps were taken on how to implement these pledges. For example, the UN was still uncommitted to expanding its role in Iraq even in tasks mandated by Resolution 1770, such as implementing measures to advise, support, and assist with Iraqi political dialogue and national reconciliation. Ban himself cautioned that any expansion of the UN's presence would depend on security conditions. At present the UN allows about 65 staffers to reside in the enclosed Baghdad Green Zone after its Baghdad office was hit on 19 August, 2003 by a truck bomb that killed 22 people, including its special envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Most notably absent from the meeting's discussion was a plan of action to support the Baghdad government's efforts to curb sectarian strife through an inclusive political dialogue and national reconciliation. Also the participants did not come out with any concrete plan to promote regional dialogue and cooperation on ending Iraq's violence as demanded by the UN chief in his opening speech. One of the key problems which participants had to deal with is the increasing number of Iraqis who are fleeing their war- ravaged country to neighbouring nations or other parts of Iraq. The UN estimates 4.2 million Iraqis have fled fighting and other violence, roughly half of them fleeing to neighbouring countries. The other half remain displaced within Iraq. Yet the participants failed to take action either to help in the humanitarian needs of the refugees or to help stop the influx which refutes Washington's claims that its civilian protection plan is working, suggesting Iraq is not a safer place for civilians. It is striking how little the conference has achieved despite the dire need for a larger role for the world community in Iraq to tackle a wider range of political and social issues. It was obvious again that participants are merely paying lip service, leaving questions hanging on whether they are seriously willing to help Iraq get out of its quagmire. As on previous occasions they still seem to believe that the kind of progress now crucial -- moves towards political compromise and national reconciliation -- largely depends on the Iraqis themselves. Many experts believe that the UN bureaucracy is neither willing nor ready to take an active role in Iraq. They also believe that many key UN members do not want the world organisation to be used to clean up the American mess in Iraq and then blamed for its failure. Such a UN stance was clearly underscored by Lynn Pascoe, the UN's undersecretary-general for political affairs in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor on the eve of the conference. "It's not like we're going to jump in and solve what the Americans couldn't get done in the last several years. The last thing I'm going to do is pretend we have some magic formula to make this work," he said. The participants are expected to meet again in Istanbul, Turkey, at the end of October to follow up their discussions in New York. Turkish officials tried to avoid raising expectations that the two-day meeting could be a useful vehicle for increasing support for Iraq's government. Indeed, the Istanbul meeting is doomed to be another exercise in public relations and futile diplomacy as the Turks were only pushing for it because they wanted it to be there. The first international conference was held in Sharm El-Sheikh on 3-4 May, instead of Istanbul, despite promises made by the US. The conference's joint communiqué said the second meeting will be held in Istanbul, in order to keep the promise.
