RIYADH, Sept 6: There is a growing emphasis in the Arab world to let the UN arms inspectors back in Baghdad, to resolve somehow the current impasse between the United States and Iraq. A war would plunge the entire region into a hell of fire, everyone here agrees.
The Arab states are backing the return of the UN arms inspectors to Iraq but only through an understanding and agreement between Baghdad and the United Nations. The regional foreign ministers, at the end of an Arab League meeting in Cairo, urged Iraq to pursue its dialogue with the UN, and asked its Secretary-General Amr Moussa to contact the Security Council and UN chief Kofi Annan and urge them to fulfil their legal (and moral) responsibilities.
Amr Moussa later added that the return of the inspectors would allow the world to determine whether or not Iraq was violating the UN Council resolutions calling for dismantling the Iraqi programme for weapons of mass destruction. “Iraq has asserted it had no plans for rearming, specially with weapons of mass destruction,” Moussa recalled.
“There are accusations to the opposite of that,” he reiterated.
At the end of the week, which witnessed a GCC foreign ministers’ conference in Jeddah and an Arab League foreign ministers’ conference in Cairo, discussing the US-Iraq imbroglio, Saudi and other regional newspapers have been urging Baghdad to allow the return of UN arms inspectors before it is too late to avert a military strike against it.
“We believe Baghdad must listen to the European and the Arab calls and allow the return of the inspectors, as the entire world now demands their return,” Saudi daily Al Watan said in an editorial. The daily urged the Iraqi leadership to learn from its mistakes of past.
Another Saudi daily, Al-Riyadh, advised the Iraqi leadership to understand the realities in the world today and not count on Russian backing. “Baghdad’s leadership need to evaluate and understand the developments and changes taking place in the world in the right perspective and should not delude itself (by banking on) Russian support or on a shy European stance, as they all have their own agendas. Iraq is racing against time in the face of the US administration, and it will not be able to prevent war except through calculated and wise moves,” through admitting the inspectors, Al-Riyadh commented.
However, Saudi English daily Arab News in its editorial highlighted a new dimension to the issue of the return of inspectors. Underlining the fact that President Bush has finally almost been persuaded to ask the Security Council to approve a resolution threatening military action if the UN arms inspectors are not allowed unfettered access within a specified time-frame.
Commenting on the new development, Arab News said: “Bush will, of course, get his UN resolution. There is an international consensus that arms inspectors must return at all costs. Iraq may think that the Russians and Chinese may use their veto against any such move but that would be deluding one-self, the paper commented. “Even they (China and Russia) are sufficiently worried about Iraq’s military potential. The only thing that seriously irked them, apart from concern about a post-Saddam Iraq being in Washington’s sphere of influence, was that the US should not act unilaterally. They want this to be played by the book with themselves fully involved in the decision-making process. A new (UN) resolution meets their demands, plus in Russia’s case, a US promise to allow it unrivalled access to the post-Saddam Iraqi marketplace.
The editorial then highlights the dilemma the Arab world would be faced with in any such eventuality.
“For Arab governments, however, the change of Bush tactic, seeking a Security Council ultimatum to Baghdad, complicates matters.” The reason for opposing a US strike against Iraq is that it would unleash public fury across the region. But such opposition was also justified on the grounds that a unilateral American attack would be illegal. That will not be the case if the UN now does what President Bush wants.
Arab public opinion, in bitter anti-American mood because of continued betrayals over Palestine, is however going to be mollified by UN documents that (could) say the US can attack. Some quick rethinking (on parts of the Arab governments is therefore) required.
Continuing the argument, the paper adds that unless Iraq allows arms inspectors within the time-frame, “there will be an attack; and almost certainly sanctioned by the UN. Where will we stand then? And where will we stand afterward when the Americans are feted by ordinary Iraqis as liberators? Or provided a new staging post in the Middle East? Difficult question.”
The questions are indeed too difficult for the Arab governments to answer. But someone here needs to seek an answer to all these questions before indeed it is too late and catastrophic for the entire region.
Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador in the UK has said that Mr Bush is obsessed with hitting Iraq. “I don’t know what is going to happen next, but I know that (President Bush) is going to hit Iraq, and is going to end up a tragedy,” the ambassador said in an interview with Britain’s Spectator weekly news magazine.