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| Iraq | |
| Arab summit to test Iraq security, regional role | |
| 2011-02-02 | |
| BAGHDAD - If Middle East unrest does not scuttle its plans, Iraq will host its first Arab League summit in two decades in March, giving its Shia-led government a chance to reintegrate the country into a sceptical Arab world. The meeting of Arab leaders also offers an enticing target for Sunni Islamist insurgents or Shia militia trying to undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and will become a major test of Iraq's readiness to defend itself after US forces withdraw this year. "I would not call this a gamble, but it is a challenge more than anything," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters in an interview. "We both need this summit. It is important and challenging for Iraq, but it is important for Arabs too." Maliki's main aim with the summit will be to reassure neighbouring countries, where many Sunni Arab-dominated governments view the rise of Iraq's Shia majority with suspicion and fear the growing influence of Shia power Iran. More than security, the summit may be disrupted by an uprising in Tunisia and protests in Egypt that are testing the region with its worst crisis in decades. "The unrest is still going on in these countries and may affect the date or even change the agenda of the summit. So far no one knows," said Shakir Kattab, a member of Iraq's Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc. The stakes are high -- a successful summit would help Iraq to reassert itself as a major Arab nation and could also lead to reduced tacit support in some Arab countries for the insurgency. A disastrous strike by suicide bombers or militants firing rockets and mortars, however, could set back by years Iraq's efforts to prove it is on a path to improved stability. Despite the threat, the government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to rehabilitating six big hotels in Baghdad that were targeted by insurgents in the past. It is renovating villas and palaces to accommodate delegates from 21 countries invited to the summit, repaving the main road from Baghdad airport and planting flowers and trees to try to prettify a city left in a shambles by years of war.
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| Posted by:Steve White |