By IPS Correspondents
LONDON, Jan 25 1999 (IPS)

As if to underline the rules, U.S. planes attacked an Iraqi anti-aircraft battery on Sunday as Arab League foreign ministers were meeting in Cairo to try to reach a common stand to end the Iraqi crisis.

Iraq walked out of the meeting to protest a communique issued by the ministers, which fell short of condemning the U.S.-British bombing of Iraq in December and calling for an immediate end to United Nations economic sanctions, as Baghdad had expected.

Baghdad’s hopes for stronger Arab solidarity were based on the widespread indignation the latest bombing caused among the Arab people, which had sparked demonstrations from Oman to Morocco.

“We were promised before coming to Cairo that the final statement would be positive and support Iraq,” said Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Saeed al Sahaf. “Unfortunately this was not the case.”

International observers agreed there was much distance between what Iraq wished and what the Arab League ministers delivered.

Baghdad wanted the League to condemn the American and British air strikes against Iraq last month, urge its 21 members to end the UN sanctions against Iraq unilaterally, and declare illegal the no-fly zones imposed by Washington and London in northern and southern Iraq.

Instead, what the Arab League communique offered was “sorrow” at the U.S.-British bombing of Iraq; an “invitation” for Iraq to work out a diplomatic solution to the problem of weapons inspection with the UN Security Council; and a call to Baghdad to implement the appropriate Security Council resolutions for the ending of the economic sanctions.

As a practical measure, the Arab League appointed a Contact Group to lobby the 15 members of the Security Council regarding the lifting of the embargo.

What riled al Sahaf was the fact that the Arab League Contact Group did not include Iraq. Instead, he complained, it contained “Iraq’s enemies”. By this, he meant Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.

These were the countries which were instrumental in getting the Arab League foreign ministers’ conference — called at the initiative of Yemen and the United Arab Emirates — postponed from Dec 23 to Jan 24.

Analysts believe that the leaders of these countries were aware of the strong emotions that the U.S.-led air strikes from Dec 16 to 19 had aroused among the public in the Arab world.

That is why they wanted to slow down the process, hoping the popular anger over Washington’s air raids would subside.

This frustrated the plan of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He wanted the Arab League foreign ministers to prepare the ground for a summit to debate the Iraqi issue, and come out in favour of breaching the UN sanctions.

Therefore Iraq retaliated by attacking the troika of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.

In a television broadcast on the Iraqi Army Day on Jan 5, aired on the Doha-based Al Jazeera satellite television channel, Saddam Hussein noted that the attacking American and British aircraft had come from Arab countries and from ships stationed in Arab waters. He had also pointed out that were Western troops in “the land of the Holy Sites,” meaning Saudi Arabia.

Five days later, the Iraqi parliament called for reparations from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for providing bases to America and Britain for air strikes against Iraq.

In response, the official Saudi Press Agency accused Saddam of killing and torturing thousands, and added: “The Iraqi people need revolution to topple the Baghdad tyrant.”

A war of words ensued between Cairo and Baghdad, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak declaring that “the regime in power (in Baghdad) is the root of all problems.”

In response, the ‘Babel’ newspaper, run by Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, urged Egyptians “to topple Mubarak, their shameless ruler.”

The Iraqi parliamentarians questioned the validity of the borders of Kuwait demarcated in 1994 according to the Security Council resolution, and accepted by Baghdad. In a newspaper article, Iraqi Deputy Premier Tariq Aziz reiterated the parliamentarians’ theme.

This was enough to alert the Security Council, whose members unanimously deplored Aziz’s article and reaffirmed Kuwait’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The subject of Kuwait’s borders is highly sensitive. It was one of two reasons which led to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 — the other one being Kuwait’s over-production of petroleum to depress its price which, in Baghdad’s view, hurt Iraq’s revenues and its reconstruction plans following its eight-year war with Iran.

Little wonder that the issue of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait cropped up at the Arab League meeting on Sunday.

According to League sources, Kuwait demanded an apology from Iraq for its invasion. Iraq reportedly refused. However, it went as far as recognising that it had made a “mistake” on Kuwait in 1990.

Aware of the issue arising at the Cairo meeting, Aziz had said earlier in an interview with the Lebanese ‘Al Nahar’ newspaper that Iraq was willing to apologise for its “mistakes” if other Arab governments did the same. “If all Arabs said sorry to one another, then Iraq will be ready to apologise,” he added.

But this was not acceptable to Kuwait. Among other things, Kuwait wanted the issue of some 600 Kuwaitis missing since the 1991 Gulf War settled to its satisfaction.

It also wanted Iraq to promise in writing that it would not threaten its neighbours in the future.

These points were part of the draft that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt had submitted to the Arab League ministers in Cairo. The other draft before the ministers was submitted by Baghdad with its proposals on the air strikes, UN sanctions and the no-fly zones.

According to informed sources, Syria played a mediating role, attempting to find a middle ground.

At the end of the seven-hour meeting, what emerged was something of a compromise. But the fact that Arab League did not condemn the US-UK air strikes disappointed Iraq most.

The least that Baghdad had hoped to achieve was to ensure that in case of future air strikes by the US and Britain, they would be denied the use of military bases in any Arab state in the Gulf region.

As it was, in December American and British warplanes had taken off from the bases of only Kuwait and Oman. And Kuwaitis had been reluctant to advertise the fact. Furthermore, the Kuwaiti Cabinet ‘welcomed’ the end of the military operations by Washington and London.

In the end, the result of the Arab League meeting was a classic dilemma of whether to declare a glass half-empty or half full.

Having portrayed Iraq as a victim of US-UK aggression in the hope of translating the popular backing it received during the air strikes into official pro-Iraq policies in the Arab world, Baghdad was simply not in a mood to accept the fact that the glass was half-full.

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