Baghdad emerges victorious at Doha summit

The Iraqi delegation to the organisation of Islamic Conference summit is expected to return home today having made the most out of the gathering, officials said.

Baghdad did not get the 56 Islamic members countries to agree to unilaterally lift the Untied Nations crippling sanctions. It did not win their consent to its call for waging Jihad against Israel either. But in the kind of summit where the significance lies more in how resolutions are worded than carried out, Iraq won the wording that does not place the blame for the current situation at its doorstep. And steps were taken to bring foes Iraq and Kuwait closer together.

This is quite a change from previous Arab summits and get-togethers. Until the Doha summit, Kuwaiti-Iraqi relations were discussed under the title “the Iraqi aggression on Kuwait". Arab leaders repeatedly stressed that Baghdad must apologise to Kuwait, a key demand by the emirate, for the 1990 invasion.

President Saddam Hussain was also threatened, ordered, requested and urged to implement the UN Security Council resolutions in order to admit isolated Iraq back into the international community and the Arab fold.

This time, the summit’s final communique listed the Kuwait-Iraqi issue under “The situation between Iraq and Kuwait" with no reference to any Iraqi aggression. The demand of Baghdad to implement all the United Nations Security Council resolutions was stated calmly - no pushy or harsh language was used.

What is more, the 56 members “underscored’’ the organisation’s absence of any objections to “flights to and from Iraq." De facto, the air embargo against Iraq has been broken as more than 30 flights from France, Russia, Arab states like the UAE, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan landed in the newly opened airport in Baghdad. Earlier this month, Iraq restarted internal flights for the first time in a almost a decade.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani, whose country is now the OIC’s new chairman for the three-year term, hailed the summit’s resolutions on Iraq as one of the most important outcomes of the summit. Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed Al Sahhaf said the same thing at the summit’s end in the small hours yesterday.

Officials told Gulf News that it is high time to let bygones be bygones as the Arab people have become bored of hearing Kuwaiti complaints against Iraq at a time when Iraqi children are dying by the thousands of malnutrition and diseases. Also, several Arab and Gulf countries have mended fences with Baghdad leaving Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as the only ones refusing to follow suit.

Qatar, which has been calling for, and accused of, trying to reinstate Iraq back in the Arab fold, made mediation efforts during the summit between Kuwait and Iraq and made sure Kuwait would not object to the language used in the summit’s final communique. The communique states that Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani would exert efforts “to prepare the ground for resolving the differences between them in accordance with the principles and objectives of the Untied Nations, the relevant Security Council resolutions and the principles and objectives of the OIC."

Another good news out of the summit in relation to Iraq is the outcome of the meeting between UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Iraqis. After the meeting, it was announced that Iraq has agreed to restart negotiations unconditionally with the UN, thus paving the way for an end of the two-year impasse over disarmament.

Iraq must account for the nuclear and biological weapons it is said to stash, return Kuwaiti properties and return the more than 600 Kuwaiti and third national Prisoners of War before the sanctions can be lifted.

But with all the reconciliatory tones, Iraq has not been entirely absolved. Baghdad must still “complete its implementation of the obligations stipulated in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions," to reinforce security and stability in the region, according to the final summit communique.

Iraq must also respect the security of the State of Kuwait and territorial integrity and communique called on Iraq to take the necessary and adequate steps to bring about sound positions on Kuwait.

Iraq’s integrity and security will be respected and the OIC demanded that “illegitimate actions taken against Iraq outside the framework of the relevant Security Council resolutions be brought to an end," a reference to the almost daily bombardment of Iraqi sites by U.S. and British airplanes.