On the road to Baghdad

Frantic preparations being made by the Iraqi authorities indicate that the Arab Summit scheduled to be held in Baghdad will be ready by the end of the month… Arrangements to host kings, presidents and emirs have been finalised… and security procedures have reached  their peak through mobilising an entire army to protect Iraq's guests, some of whom have never once set foot in Iraq. Since the summit's issues are largely "unknown" to many observers and political analysts, the road to the summit is still paved with political and security minefields… Some Arab countries do not want to grant Baghdad the honour of hosting the summit and have spared no effort in planting metaphorical  mines and obstacles on the way to Iraq. Some Arabs consider Baghdad to be an extension of Tehran and a newcomer to the "resistance and opposition" forum, although the new Iraqi regime has been accused of subservience to America and some of its officials have been accused of things that not even a bad egg would be accused of.  The most important thing is that this regime began to be included among the sectarian categories which took precedence over all other classifications, in a time where sectarianism has reached boiling point. It is said that the coming summit has to discuss the "complicated" Iranian isue which  jeopardises the country's security, stability and sovereignty, whether through its controversial nuclear programme or through its Shiite arms  which extend to several Arab countries. When Saudi Arabia accuses "foreign parties" of working to destabilise its country and peace… when the  countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are accused of charges similar to that of Iran, this means that Iraq is not qualified to hold the Arab Summit or at least from holding a high level summit. When protests erupted in Iraq in solidarity with the Bahraini people, most of whom are Shiite, this means that the components of Iraq which cling to the new regime in Baghdad should not wait for a high level Bahraini participation in the First Arab Summit following the outbreak of the "Arab Spring" and the first Summit hosted by Iraq since it invaded Kuwait for more than twenty years. The Iraqi-Gulf dispute in general and the Qatari-Saudi one in particular arose over the Syrian crisis which will throw a dense and gloomy cloud over the coming Arab Summit scene.  Kings and leaders, who fear the "security situation in Iraq" and are satisfied with the mobilisation of thousands of Iraqi soldiers for their protection, fear also the political situation surrounding  the Summit and are prepared for its coming results, not just at the level of decisions and the final statements, which are extremely important and are usually affected by the particular orientations of the host country, but from the deliberations  of the summit presidency, especially since the Qatari presidency played a crucial role on the decisions and performance of the Arab League towards both the Libyan crisis and the subsequent Syrian one.  This role is not desired by many of the Arab rulers' forums who do not want to delegate this task to another member of the resistance and opposition axis. It is worth pointing out that the road to the Arab Summit is not paved with intra-Arab disputes, but we have seen a lot of political and security mines planted on its edges by local Iraqi parties… the recent security escalation and the wave of car and suicide bombs which continue to escalate imply that Iraq is not a safe country in which to host the Arab event. We also notice the withdrawal of Iraq from the governance and power institutions which coincides with growing calls by Sunni provinces to have their own autonomy. These are developments which although have local causes and motivations, no one will be able to turn a blind eye to its Arab and regional consequences in particular. Whatever, the matter is, holding or postponing the coming summit of Baghdad is still up in the air as well as who the participants and members will be. The chances of its success lie in building an Arab consensus on the divisive issues in the Arab world, including Iran and Syria in particular.