By Abeer Allam
The New York Times, 29 March 2006
KHARTOUM, Sudan, March 28 — Concerns over growing Iranian influence in Iraq, and the lack of Arab involvement there, dominated the opening of the annual Arab League summit here on Tuesday.
"Any solution for the Iraqi problem cannot be reached without Arabs and Arab participation," Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, said in his opening speech. "Any consultations conducted without Arab participation will be considered unsatisfactory and will yield no solutions."
Arab countries have been fuming over an Iranian-American agreement this month to hold direct talks about sectarian violence in Iraq.
"They fear Iraq is drifting from the Arabs, being divorced from the Arab world, and the increased influence of another neighboring country," said Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister. "This time, we are seeing some positive moves by the Arab League toward more realization of the situation on Iraq."
In a draft resolution likely to be approved tomorrow, the group's 22 Arab nations have pledged to reopen diplomatic missions in Iraq. In November, the Arab League also started an effort to reconcile differences among Iraq's religious sects in hopes of ending the sectarian fighting there, as well as increasing the Arab presence. Still, many Arab governments said they felt powerless in the face of Iran's growing influence.
"Arabs have no cards to play with, while Iran has many," said Abdel Wahab Badrakhan, editor of Al Hayat, a newspaper based in London. "Iran can influence the situation in Iraq, Lebanon, world oil prices, and now can play the nuclear card."
Analysts in the region feel that Iran is being rewarded for adopting a confrontational approach. Even though Iran has supported terrorist groups and defied the West's admonition to abandon its nuclear program, Arab countries fear that the United States may cut a deal with Iran that further weakens Arab influence in Iraq.
On the other hand, said Mohammed el-Sayed Said, deputy director of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, the Arab countries have complied with international obligations and received nothing from the American government in return.
A declaration expected to be approved by the Arab League on Wednesday pointedly called for "respecting the Iraqi sovereignty, territorial integrity, freedom and independence and noninterference in domestic affairs."
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Citation: Abeer Allam. "Influence in Iraq Emerges as Key Issue as Arab Conference Opens," The New York Times, 29 March 2006.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/international/middleeast/29arab.html
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