Disputes cloud meeting on Iraq's future
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-11-23 15:47

Iraq's sharp accusations that its neighbors aren't doing enough to restore stability, as well as disputes over money and policy, cloud this week's international gathering on how to help a country ravaged by war and insurgency.

The United States, European and Mideast nations and other key players who open their two-day meeting in this Red Sea resort Monday may find it hard to even concentrate on Iraq.

Vying for attention are the region's other crises — Israeli-Arab tensions and fears that Iran, a participant in the Sharm el-Sheik conference, has a nuclear weapons program.

Participants take seats in the Jolie Ville congress center at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2004 where a conference focusing on Iraq's stabilization is being held Nov. 22-23 involving Iraq's neighbors, Egypt, the Group of Eight industrialized nations, China, the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the European Union.[Xinhua]

Efforts to revive Arab-Israeli diplomacy were already taking the limelight. US Secretary of State Colin Powell preceded his stop here with talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders. At Sharm, he may meet with officials from the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to deal with the Israel-Palestinian road map for peace, which the four powers sponsor.

The British, Russian, Spanish and German foreign ministers were headed to Israel and the Palestinian areas in the days after Sharm, with the Nov. 11 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat focusing new attention on the stalled road map.

On Iran, the United States has been Tehran's chief accuser in the debate over a nuclear program Iran insists is only for peaceful energy purposes.

An Egyptian soldier stands guarding the site of Jolie Ville congress center at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2004 [AP]

Some press reports have suggested Powell may meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on the sidelines at Sharm. But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, speaking to reporters in the Iranian capital Sunday, said Iran saw little need for such a meeting, in part because Powell will soon be leaving his post.

Iran is among the Sharm participants under pressure to show it is doing more to keep anti-U.S. militants from slipping into Iraq and that it is not meddling in Iraq's affairs. Shiite-majority Iran is seen as having an interest in seeing Iraq's long-suppressed Shiite majority gain political power. Some accuse it of wanting Iraq to have a hard-line theocracy similar to its own.

"We are looking forward that this conference will reaffirm U.N. resolutions to support a free and democratic and stable Iraq in peace with itself and its neighbors," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said his delegation in Sharm will present a package of proposals, including a call for tightening borders and exchanging information about militants operating in neighboring countries.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman, Thair al-Naqeeb, was blunt: "We have evidence, we have documents and we have proof that indicate that some neighboring countries are contributing to increasing the violence in Iraq.

"At Sharm el-Sheik, the Iraqi government will put pressure on the neighboring counties not to use their territories to support violence and terrorism in Iraq," al-Naqeeb said.

Iraq's neighbors, though, have other priorities.

"We will attend the conference seriously to announce our objection to the way the U.S. handled the situation in Iraq, call for withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and insist on holding elections on time," Iran's Asefi said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa toured Egypt, Iran and Turkey ahead of Sharm seeking support for a Syrian proposal that the conference should set a timetable for U.S.-led troops to withdraw from Iraq.

Arab diplomats said the Syrian proposal was deemed unrealistic and turned down by conference organizers.

Iraqi officials say former leaders of Saddam Hussein's regime often meet in Syria to plan their attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces.

On other matters, officials on Friday finalized a draft final statement that said the United Nations must play a leading role in Iraq's political reconstruction ahead of the elections.

The statement also called on the international community to help protect U.N. personnel in Iraq ahead of the elections to be supervised by the world body. The draft does not specifically call for troops to be dispatched to Iraq to protect the United Nations. Several of the countries in participating in the Sharm conference opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq and have turned down requests to send troops to help stabilize the country.

France, which strongly opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, had called for a broader Sharm gathering to allow Iraqi political forces opposing the American presence and the interim government to participate. Others argued, though, that such participation would have undermined the interim government.

Harith al-Dhari, general secretary of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, snubbed the conference, telling the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera it was held to support the occupation and enforce security on Iraqis.

"We do not have hopes for the Sharm el-Sheik conference in its current form and with the officially announced goals because we think that the conference will be dedicated to support the occupation," al-Dhari said. "This will be done by helping the elected Iraqi government, or the government appointed by the occupation forces, to impose security by force on the Iraqi people."

Al-Dhari's Sunni group has threatened to boycott Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30.

Russia and China were concerned during preliminary discussions on how to get lucrative business contracts for Iraqi reconstruction, another main topic on the agenda, according to diplomats.

Participants also were expected to discuss a debt relief for Iraq.

In Paris, the Paris Club of creditor nations — including the United States — agreed to slash Iraq's $38.9 billion debt to it by up to 80 percent. Iraq still owes $80 billion to various Arab governments.

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