DUBAI: Notwithstanding the deterioration of the Middle East crisis in recent days, last week’s Arab summit in Beirut proved to be a success at least on one count — Iraq.

While the summit’s final statement “categorically” rejected a military strike against Baghdad, bigger gains came by way of a well-orchestrated series of diplomatic coups that President Saddam Hussein’s regime unfolded in the presence of 22 countries in Beirut.

First, in the face of US threats, Iraq sought to consolidate reconciliation efforts with its Gulf neighbours by pledging in writing, for the first time, never to repeat its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Second, and equally if not more significant in the immediate context, Iraq’s presidential envoy Izzat Ibrahim and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz hugged and kissed — again the first such high-level public contact since the 1990 Gulf crisis, when Iraq had threatened to oust all “illegitimate Gulf monarchies” and Riyadh had allowed the United States to use its base to raid Baghdad.

The breakthrough came after Iraq and Kuwait reached a landmark rapprochement agreement and Ibrahim and the head of the Kuwaiti delegation, First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al Ahmad al Sabah, nodded at each other and shook hands.

Hailing mediation efforts by Oman and Qatar, the agreement said Arab leaders “welcomed Iraq’s confirmation to respect the independence, sovereignty and security of the state of Kuwait and guarantee its safety and unity to avoid anything that might cause a repetition of what happened in 1990.”

Kuwait had long insisted that Iraq admit that its invasion was in violation of all international charters and norms. The US-led Gulf War ended the Iraqi occupation in 1991.

Later, the Kuwait foreign minister said that the handshake was merely a “protocol” courtesy but admitted that he was “100 per cent satisfied” with the agreement. He also hinted that Kuwait no longer demanded an apology from Iraq for the 1990 invasion.

Under the declaration, Iraq was urged “to cooperate in order to find a prompt and final solution to the issue of the Kuwaiti prisoners and missing persons and for its restitution of properties in line with the relevant international resolutions”.

But the prospect of the agreement sticking rests on how Kuwait and Iraq resolve the prisoners of war issue. Kuwait maintains that more than 600 of its and other countries’ nationals disappeared during the Iraqi occupation and charges that the missing are still being held in Iraq.

Baghdad has admitted taking prisoners but said it lost track of them during a Shia uprising in southern Iraq that followed its eviction from Kuwait in 1991. Iraq also says around 1,140 of its own nationals are still missing since the conflict.

Obviously, the process of reconciliation, coupled with the summit’s rejection of use of force against an Arab country, has to be seen against what is widely seen as US determination to launch military strikes against Iraq as part of Washington’s ‘war against terrorism’.

Even though Ibrahim stressed that Iraq was holding out its olive branch as a sign of goodwill, not “out of fear of the United States, Britain or any other enemy,” there is little doubt that Iraq carried out a third diplomatic win with its move at the Arab League summit — by inserting “another thorn in Washington’s hegemonic designs”.

In Baghdad, Salim al Kubaisi, head of the Iraqi parliament’s foreign and Arab relations committee, hailed the agreement as “a big step towards foiling (American) hostile schemes against Iraq”.

Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi analyst, said Baghdad has finally woken up to George W Bush administration’s avowed intention to topple Saddam Hussein and is trying to internationalise its standoff with Washington.

“Iraq may have been able to add Arab backing to European opposition to a US attack on the grounds that it would throw the Middle East into turmoil, but Washington feels that ousting Saddam is a goal worth defying world opinion for,” he explained.

“Seen in its entirety, the summit’s rejection of any attack on Iraq and call for the lifting of UN sanctions imposed against that country in 1990 should serve as the strongest-yet message that the Arab world is united in rejecting the US approach to Iraq,” says PV Vivekanand, editor of a Gulf daily.

What facilitated that approach was “adopting of the moves to settle differences and burying the hatchet in the Iraq-Kuwait and Iraq-Saudi standoffs,” he adds.

Vivekanand also says that it was clear that the Arab summit was in no mood for any horse-trading over Iraq, like linking American efforts to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis with Arab support for anti-Iraq US action.

“The summit sent an unambiguous message to Washington that the crisis in Palestine and any military action against Iraq are two different issues and could not be linked together in whatever context except for the cause of stability and security in the region,” he argued.

The US said it was “profoundly sceptical” of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti non-aggression pact. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Baghdad has “a deplorable record of flouting its international obligations and UN security resolutions.”

In trying to build on the new camaraderie, Kuwait said it was toning down its media rhetoric against Iraq. Kuwaiti editors held a meeting with the foreign minister and took note of the sudden changes in Iraq’s state-controlled media, with references being made to “brotherly ties” between the neighbouring countries.

The latent message in the rapprochement is that the Arabs, including the immediate region around Iraq, do not feel any threat from Iraq. It also has an unasked question — why the United States insists on seeing such a threat when the potential targets of that “threat” fail to see it.

All eyes are now on how Washington would respond to the message that the Arabs see the worsening situation in Palestine and the repercussions of possible military attacks against Iraq as equally destabilising to the region. —Dawn/InterPress Service.