Ministers will call for end to sectarian violence threatening region The Arab League will host a meeting of foreign ministers from Iraq's neighboring countries in Cairo on Dec. 5, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry. In the statement Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said that the meeting aimed to achieve a unified Arab stance vis-à-vis Iraq, as well as showing Arab solidarity to the war torn country. Mainly, it would call for an end to the sectarian violence ripping the nation apart, Abul-Gheit said. Abul-Gheit concurred that if Iraq slid into civil war it would threaten the stability of the entire region, and stated Egypt's desire to prevent that from happening. The Arab League was unavailable for comment at press time. Analysts are not optimistic over the meeting. "Things will not change because the Arab foreign ministers have no credibility with the Iraqis. And the situation is more complicated than something that can be solved by a meeting, Emad Gad, an international relations expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told The Daily Star Egypt. Gad added that the problem stems from a lack of trust between the Shiite bloc in the Iraqi government and neighboring Arab countries. He said, "The Shiites in the Iraqi government do not view the Arab countries and the Arab League as having the interests of the entire country at heart. Rather they believe that the Arab world is more concerned with the interests of the Sunni population than anything else. Gad qualified this by stating that no premier Arab Sunni authority or Arab country had condemned the actions of Saddam Hussein even after his capture by American forces. On Sunday, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders appeared on Iraqi national television to call for an end to sectarian violence as reported by AP. However, even as they made their televised appearance, fighting was still ongoing between Iraqi security forces and Sunni Arab insurgents in Baqouba, north of Baghdad. Nabil Abdel-Fatah, an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, previously told The Daily Star Egypt that he does not believe sectarian strife will end in Iraq, because the country has become a vessel for regional and international interests like Lebanon. Jordan's King Abdallah warned on Sunday that the Middle East is on the verge of three civil wars in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories unless the international community takes strong and urgent action, according to Reuters.
