Iraq Minister Reassures Nations on Unity
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KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- Iraq's interim foreign minister tried to reassure his country's neighbors about his government's commitment to build a united Iraq as officials from its six bordering nations met Saturday in Kuwait City.
The meeting of representatives from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Kuwait and Syria plus politically influential Egypt is the first one attended by an Iraqi delegate. The group met four times previously to discuss the repercussions of developments in Iraq on their region.
Participants will discuss a proposal by the U.S.-led coalition to reorganize Iraq into a federal system before transferring power in July. Arab nations have criticized the plan, fearing it may empower ethnic groups and lead to the country's partition and regional instability.
Before Saturday's meeting, Syria's deputy foreign minister, Issa Darwish said: "Partitioning Iraq would be tantamount to heresy, but the Iraqi people have to decide what is good for them."
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal, told reporters that "everybody was worried" Iraq might break up. He did not elaborate.
But Iraq's Interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press in an interview his country would stay united.
"We understand their fears ... we have come to reassure them that the Iraqi people are committed to national unity, to Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said. "No group or faction has any extra agenda to divide Iraq. We are all united to build a democratic Iraq."
Zebari said he was urging neighboring countries to help improve their border security "to prevent infiltrating hostile elements" from entering Iraq to attack coalition soldiers and Iraqis.
A Turkish diplomat and a member of the Iraqi delegation separately told the AP a draft of the final communique, which the conference will issue Sunday, expresses support for the July 1 transfer of power and condemns the attacks on innocent Iraqis. The diplomat and Iraqi delegate spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on his arrival late Friday that "we hope that the neighboring countries contribute and help in solving the problems in Iraq."
Brahimi came to Kuwait from Iraq, where he spent a week at the request of Washington and the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council amid growing criticism of U.S. plans for the transfer of power in Iraq.
Iraq' neighbors fear a federal state could encourage nationalism among Kurds in the north, the Sunni Muslim Arabs in the center and Shiite Muslim Arabs in the south.
Turkey, Syria and Iran have their Kurdish minorities to contend with; and the Gulf countries have Shiite groups who might represent a challenge to the Sunni-dominated ruling order in the region.
An Arab League delegation that visited Iraq in December said in an unpublished report that changing the distribution of power in Iraq could give too much authority to the Kurds and Shiites.
But analysts on Saturday expressed skepticism about the role neighboring countries can or are willing to play at this juncture.
"Most of these countries have not played any significant role in the battle (in Iraq)," said Khaled Maeena, a Saudi columnist.
He said Saudi officials have said they "are not going to talk except to a duly elected Iraqi government."
Fouad al-Hashem, columnist for Kuwait's daily Al-Watan, said the meeting will go nowhere without an American representative.
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher disagreed, telling the AP that Arab states could help Iraq.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.