By Souhail Karam
Reuters, 18 September 2006
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and fellow Iraq neighbours Iran and Turkey voiced concern on Monday that Iraqi sectarian and ethnic tensions could spill over into the region, home to a similar ethnic and religious mix.
"What we fear today is that the wise could fall in the traps of the ignorant, in which case Iraq, its unity and people would be victims...," Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef told counterparts from nine countries in a meeting to discuss efforts to help Iraq quash an insurgency and quell sectarian violence.
"The dangers of such a situation, God forbid, are not a jeopardy to Iraq alone, but they will have an impact on the security of the international community and (Iraq's) neighbours," he said.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi and his Turkish counterpart Abdulkadir Aksu echoed similar concerns.
Prince Nayef said Iraqis should ignore "calls that divide Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines" in an apparent reference to violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim groups and tensions between Arab and Kurdish Iraqis.
"This requires that we all do our utmost to bring Iraq and the Iraqis out of this dark tunnel."
Saudi Arabia has a Shi'ite minority with cultural and historical links to their co-religionists in both Iran and Iraq.
Interior ministers from Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq and its neighbours -- Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Turkey, Kuwait -- were meeting in the Saudi port city of Jeddah to discuss ways of bolstering Iraqi efforts to improve security.
The ministers agreed to form a liaison unit in Baghdad and pledged to exchange security data, crack down on smuggling and help in training officers.
"The continuation of violence in Iraq and the impact of that on the social fabric in the country could lead to extremely sensitive problems ... in the whole region," said Turkey's Aksu.
Turkey and Syria are worried about the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, which could inspire their Kurdish minorities to pursue similar ambitions, diplomats say.
BLAMING FAILURES
Shi'ite power Iran has been accused by some Sunni Iraqi and Arab politicians of seeking to dominate Iraq, ruled by a Shi'ite government. It denies the allegations.
"Freedom and democracy cannot be achieved by accusing other countries and conspiring against neighbouring states to shift blame on others in the region to cover up failure," said Pourmohammadi of Iran.
Iraqi officials often complain that their neighbours, mainly Iran and Syria, are not doing enough to block the flow of Islamist militants, who cross into Iraq to fight U.S.-led forces.
"We need to improve the security situation in Iraq with more border control," Alaa al-Ta'i, an Iraqi interior ministry spokesman told Reuters. "We want ... logistical support including more equipment and training of Iraqi police in (other) countries, like Saudi Arabia, as Jordan have done," he added.
Iraq's government has been battling an insurgency which seeks to drive out U.S.-led forces and topple the government that they see as a stooge of the United States.
Officials in Saudi Arabia, which has a 1,000 km (630 mile) desert border with Iraq, have already talked of concerns that Saudis who have gone to fight alongside Iraq's Sunni insurgents could return to fight in Saudi Arabia.
Estimates of the number of Saudi militants in Iraq range from several hundred to several thousand.
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Citation: Souhail Karam. "Saudi,Iran,Turkey worried about Iraq woes spill over," Reuters, 18 September 2006.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18758156.htm
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