Tag: iraq

Arab troops in Iraq

Following Ursula’s recent post from the Sharm Al Sheikh conference — and her revelation that Iraq may publicly accuse neighboring countries of aiding the insurgents — I’d like to add a little informed speculation about another possible outcome.

I read Middle Eastern news pretty thoroughly on a daily basis, and there is an important item that’s been unreported in the mainstream press. In fact, I only found out about it last week from the British satirical magazine Private Eye, the best publication available in print in my opinion and the only one I subscribe to. While a lot of Private Eye is humor, they do an excellent watch of British politics and media and also have regular coverage on the murky connections between diplomacy, finance, arms trading and such. In this month’s issue they have a short article about an offer made to President Bush in July by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to offer Arab peacekeeping troops from several countries, but only on the condition that they be under the command of the UN rather than US. Bush refused.

Considering the developments since the summer, that it is becoming increasingly clear that another 40-50,000 troops are needed to control the uprising, that Poland could get out of Iraq soon (following Hungary) and that France and Germany still seem against the idea of sending troops, he may have to change his mind. The Saudi offer story has recently been confirmed by an Arab source, who said it might come back on the table.

One last thought: if Arab countries do send troops (and perhaps other Muslim countries like Pakistan), they will try to exact a high price for their collaboration. Specifically, they will expect at the very least less pressure on democratization.

Iraq Conference in Egypt

It’s 1 am so I’m not sure this post will be too coherent. I’m covering the conference on Iraq in the Red Coast town of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. The conference is being attended by all of Iraq’s neighbors (Syria, Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey) as well as by the US, France, Germany, the UK, the Arab League, the UN, the EU and many more. The aim of the conference is a little vague (more on that later) but in general it’s a show of support for the upcoming elections, for the interim government, and for the future stability of the country.

Today there was the meeting between Iraq and neighboring countries. As of writing this, I know nothing about it from the participants themselves, as they gave no comment on entering or exiting, the talks were not televised, and there was no press conference. There was massive security and journalists were kept miles away. The Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the discussion had focused on elections and security, and that was that. Typical Middle Eastern lack of transparency perhaps. But there may be a further reason that everyone was so tight-lipped. I talked to a high-ranking Iraqi official in Baghdad tonight, and he told me the Iraqi delegation was planning on presenting evidence at the meeting of the “interference” of other countries in its affairs–of how they (he wouldn’t name names, but we are talking Iran and Syria at least obviously) have directly funded and supported terrorist groups in Iraq and how they are home to a great number of rich and disgruntled Baathist elite with links to the insurgency. Oh to have have a fly on the wall at these talks..

In general covering this sort of event is exhausting and really frustrating. A lot of the press spends a lot of its time staking out hotel lobbies (the delegations are spread out over many of the luxurious summer resort hotels here) and hounding passing officials into giving snippets of comment. There was a really funny scene today when the Syrian Foreign Minister became the center of a camera scrum but refused to talk. His handlers on all sides tried to hustle him along, but they took him the opposite way of where he needed to go, and he and his entourage ended up bounding around the courtyard of a hotel like a ping-pong for a while, journalists in hot pursuit. At one point he even accidentally ended up on a dead-end raised catwalk–we all thought he was going to make a statement, but he was just lost. Finally they piled into the obligatory go-cart and took off.

The Iraqi officials were really busy of course and hard to get ahold of but I have to say that they are the most engaging to talk to, in general. They actually say things. The Iraqi deputy foreign minister denied that any civilians had died in Fallujah. He also said the new January 30 election date is realistic, and that Iraqis will participate “because this will determine the future of the country.” And he claimed Kuwait had agree to forgive Iraq 80% of its debt (just like the Paris Club just did). That would be a lot of money, and would put pressure on Saudi Arabia to do so as well, but I was unable to get Kuwaiti officials to confirm this.

Other than the interesting confrontation between Iraq and its neighbors, there are of course the well-established tension between France and the US. France (and other countries) would like there to be a set withdrawal date for US troops. The US doesn’t want to make that commitment. More on this tomorrow after press conferences from Bernier and Powell.

In general, as I started out saying, it’s unclear what practical steps or actions are going to come out of this to aid Iraq. They”ll issue a nice statement at the end, but then what? The underlying problem–that European countries are unwilling to send forces to help with the aftermath of a war they opposed, and Arab countries are afraid a stable Iraq will be a base for further US military interventions in the region–haven’t gone away.

CPJ on Iraq press freedom

From the Committee to Protect Journalists:

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by a new directive from Iraqi authorities that warns news organizations to reflect the government’s positions in their reporting or face unspecified action.

The warning came in a statement released Thursday but dated November 9 by the government regulatory Media High Commission. The commission cited the 60-day state of emergency, declared when U.S.-led forces began their offensive in Fallujah this week, The Associated Press and Reuters reported. The state of emergency covers all of Iraq except the Kurdish north, giving the prime minister additional powers to quash the insurgency before elections in January.

Directing the news media to differentiate between “innocent citizens of Fallujah” and insurgents, the commission instructed journalists not to attach “patriotic descriptions to groups of killers and criminals,” according to the statement, obtained by CPJ. The statement also asked the media to “set aside space in your news coverage to make the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis, clear.”

“You must be precise and objective in handling news and information,” the statement said. “We hope you comply … otherwise we regret we will be forced to take all the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests,” it added.

“We are very troubled by this directive, which is an attempt to control news coverage through government coercion,” said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. “It damages the government’s credibility in establishing a free and democratic society.”

In August, Iraqi authorities closed the Baghdad office of the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera and barred the Qatar-based station from newsgathering in Iraq after deeming its coverage to be against the Iraqi people and government. The government extended the ban indefinitely a month later.

A mujahid’s tale

The Washington Post has a rare insight into the life of a Yemeni man who left his country to fight the occupation of Iraq in Falluja:

Abu Thar turned 30, and might never have tried to reach Iraq again but for the photographs that emerged of U.S. military police abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Seeing the photos, his wife, also a religious student, urged him to leave everything and go to Iraq to fight jihad. She was pregnant with their sixth child.

“She told me, ‘If they are doing this to the men, imagine what is happening to the women now,’ ” Abu Thar recalled. ” ‘Imagine your sisters and I being raped by the infidel American pigs.'”

He said he spent the night crying, tormented that he did not persevere earlier. In the morning he started making the rounds of friends, borrowing money to travel.

Allawi family kidnapped

I just received some news that three members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s family were kidnapped today, including his wife.

This is not confirmed yet, but it just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn’t it?

Update: Here’s the first item I see. It’s not his wife, but his cousin and his cousin’s wife, as well as another relative.

Here’s another report:

A posting on an Islamic Web site by a group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad group claimed responsibility for kidnapping three Allawi relatives, and threatened to behead them in 48 hours if their demands aren’t met.

They demanded that Allawi and his government release all female and male detainees in Iraq, and lift the siege on Fallujah.

“We promise Allah and his messenger that if the agent government doesn’t respond to our demands within 48 hours, they (the hostages) will be beheaded.”

Call to Iraqi sunnis to boycott vote because of Falluja

This is bad:

“The clerics call on honorable Iraqis to boycott the upcoming election that is to be held over the bodies of the dead and the blood of the wounded in cities like Falluja,” said Harith al-Dhari, director of the Muslim Scholars Association, a group of Sunni clerics that says it represents 3,000 mosques.

Hours earlier, the group issued a religious edict ordering Iraqi security forces not to take part in the siege. Of course, there is always a chance that clerics could rescind their call for a boycott, but the group has until now been fairly uncompromising in its dealings with the Americans and the interim Iraqi government.

Just as ominous was the withdrawal of the Iraqi Islamic Party from the interim government. The party was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council set up by the Americans during the occupation and has been held up by American and Iraqi officials as a model of Sunni participation in the political future of the country. In recent weeks, its leader, Mohsen Abdul Hameed, had been saying he intended to take part in the elections.

“After the attack on Falluja, we decided to withdraw from the government because our presence in the government will be judged by history,” Mr. Abdul Hameed, an interim National Assembly member, said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

The move so alarmed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi that he met privately with Mr. Abdul Hameed hours later. But the party stuck to its position, and an aide said in the afternoon that it was not clear that the group would take part in the elections.

“We haven’t decided to withdraw from the elections; we’re still going forward with the process,” the aide, Ayad al-Samarrai, said. “But it will all depend on the general situation in Iraq.”

See also Juan Cole for more on the Iraqi political reaction to the current military operation in Falluja.

Hostages in Iraq

AP did a tally of foreigners taken hostage in Iraq. Sobering.

A Look at Foreigners Taken Hostage in Iraq

By The Associated Press

Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 150 foreigners:

HELD HOSTAGE:

_Margaret Hassan, director of CARE international in Iraq and a citizen of Britain, Ireland and Iraq. Abducted Oct. 19. A videotape issued Oct. 22 shows her pleading for Britain to withdraw troops from Iraq.

_Two Lebanese electrical workers, Marwan Ibrahim Kassar and Mohammed Jawdat Hussein. A video broadcast Sept. 30 shows masked men holding them at gunpoint. Islamic Army in Iraq claims responsibility.

_Christian Chesnot, 37, and George Malbrunot, 41, French journalists. Disappeared Aug. 20. Islamic Army in Iraq claims responsibility.

_Aban Elias, 41, Iraqi-American. Seized May 3 by Islamic Rage Brigade.

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