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Sudan appears reluctant to participate in Iraq’s Arab League summit

March 10, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese officials have been signaling unwillingness to be present at the Arab League summit that is scheduled to be held in Iraq later this month.

A general view of the Arab League foreign ministers meeting on Syria at the league's headquarters in Cairo March 10, 2012 (Reuters)
A general view of the Arab League foreign ministers meeting on Syria at the league’s headquarters in Cairo March 10, 2012 (Reuters)
Iraq is preparing to host the summit that has been twice delayed by regional turmoil and acrimony between Baghdad and some Sunni Arab Gulf states over a crackdown by Bahrain’s Sunni rulers on Shi’ite protesters.

On Friday a Sudanese presidential assistant was quoted by state media as saying that his government has yet to decide on its level of participation but gave no reasons to the hesitant stance.

In an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Raya newspaper published on Sunday, president Omer Hassan al-Bashir described the situation in Iraq as “non-assuring”.

“[T]he Iraqi government is [operating from] inside the Green Zone surrounded by concrete walls and this is neither a comfortable situation nor an ideal one” Bashir said.

“We support peace in Iraq, we support unity in Iraq, we are worried about Iraq but we are not happy with the situation in Iraq. So far we have not made a decision to participate in the Arab summit. This will be decided by the pertinent [government] bodies in Sudan” the Sudanese president said.

Sudan may be seeking to wait and see what the stance of the Arab Gulf states on the matter is going to be. It has been reported that the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sent a joint message to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki setting conditions for their participation in the summit at a senior level.

Among the stipulations is not inviting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, scheduling a vote on the legitimacy of the al-Assad’s government and for Baghdad to stand by a resolution condemning the violent year-long crackdown by Damascus on protestors demanding the departure of the regime.

Saudi Arabia which is the world’s top oil exporter and one of the leading Arab powers, has long viewed President Bashar al-Assad’s government with distrust due to Assad’s alliance with Saudi Arabia’s regional arch-rival Iran.

Sudan’s Bashir has initially stood by the Syrian regime calling the events an “international conspiracy” but later had a change of heart and voted in favour of the Arab League resolution suspending Damascus’ membership in the Pan-Arab body.

As Khartoum faces a deep economic crisis after the loss of the oil-rich south, it has turned its eyes towards the Arab Gulf countries for help. On Friday, Bashir visited Saudi Arabia accompanied by his ministers of finance, agriculture as well as the central bank governor.

He also managed to secure a $2 billion pledge from Qatar during his participation in the Connect Arab 2012 conference hosted by Doha this week.

Sources say that several Arab Gulf countries were unhappy with the visit made by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September to Khartoum and Bashir’s expression of support to Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran, along with China, is one of the biggest supporters of Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir who faces indictment from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in the long-running Darfur conflict.

(ST)

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