Why Are Arab Ambassadors Returning to Baghdad Now?

CAIRO, Nov 7 (IPS) - More than five years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Arab capitals are beginning to send ambassadors to Baghdad. But some Egyptian commentators question the timing of the move, which they attribute to pressure from Washington.

"Arab governments originally wanted a full withdrawal of foreign forces and a stable security environment before sending ambassadors," Ahmed Thabet, political science professor at Cairo University, told IPS. "Yet the pending U.S.-Iraq security agreement promises to turn the current military occupation of Iraq into a constitutionally sanctioned one."

In early October, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi visited the Iraqi capital with the stated aim of improving the two countries' long-stalled bilateral relationship. The trip represented the first by an Egyptian foreign minister since 1990, when Cairo severed diplomatic relations with Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the wake of the latter's invasion of Kuwait.

At a joint press conference with Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari, Aboul-Gheit announced that Cairo intended to restore full diplomatic relations with Iraq and to soon dispatch an ambassador to Baghdad. He went on to say that Egypt also planned to embark on closer economic cooperation with Iraq, particularly on the reconstruction of the war-torn country's energy sectors.

"Egypt has a confirmed desire to build a strong and active Iraqi-Egyptian relationship," Aboul-Gheit told reporters.

On Oct. 14, he reiterated Egypt's intention to step up its diplomatic presence in Iraq, noting that construction of a new Egyptian embassy on the banks of Baghdad's Tigris River was close to completion.

"The situation in Iraq is stabilizing gradually and it demands that a country like Egypt, which has interests with Iraq, begin to give itself a presence on the ground," Aboul-Gheit was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency. He added, however, that full diplomatic relations "would not be resumed overnight."

Ever since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Washington has urged Sunni-Arab states to normalize diplomatic relations with the government in Baghdad. Until recently, however, Arab capitals -- distrustful of the Shia-led, Iran-friendly Iraqi government -- have been reluctant to comply.

Arab governments have also tried to condition the dispatch of their ambassadors on a system of power sharing more favorable to Iraq's Sunni Muslim population and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. Neither of these conditions has been met.

In addition, Arab governments have expressed concern for the safety of their representatives. Such worries were largely vindicated in 2005, when Egyptian diplomat Ihab al-Sherif -- tentatively named Egypt's ambassador to Iraq -- was kidnapped and presumed killed.

Despite these stumbling blocks, Egypt is not the only Arab state to make diplomatic overtures towards Baghdad.

In August, Bahrain appointed its first ambassador to Iraq since 2003, followed a month later by the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait followed in late October, sending its first ambassador to Baghdad since the 1990 Iraqi invasion. Jordan, too, has recently named an ambassador (although he has yet to officially assume his post), and Saudi Arabia has stated its intention to open an embassy in the Iraqi capital in the near future.

In mid-October, even Syria -- frequently accused by Washington of not doing enough to curb the flow of anti-occupation fighters into Iraq from its territory -- sent its first ambassador to Baghdad in decades. Diplomatic relations between Syria and Iraq, long ruled by rival factions of the pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, had been frozen for the most part since Saddam Hussein assumed presidency in 1979.