Arab countries have agreed that the issues of Palestine and Iraq should top the agenda of the two- day Arab summit in Amman, Jordan starting on Tuesday.

It will be the first time in more than a decade that Iraq, who has been under the longest and most comprehensive United Nations sanctions for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, will be at the center of an Arab summit conference.

However, analysts point out that Iraq, a long-term focus of Arab rancor, will pose a tough problem for the Arab leaders who have been deeply divided since Iraq invaded its tiny neighbor.

Iraq Blasts Kuwait, Saudi Arabia Ahead of Summit

Squabblings between Iraq and Kuwait at the Arab foreign ministers’ meetings in Cairo and Amman this month suggest that more than 10 years after the end of the 1991 Gulf War, the ill feeling between the two neighbors still persists.

In a statement on March 18, an Iraqi Information Ministry spokesman reviled the Kuwaiti and Saudi regimes by branding them " henchmen of Zionism (Israel) which are going to speak in the voice of their United States and British masters."

The spokesman accused the two U.S. allies in the Gulf region of "wanting to represent America and the Zionism during the summit and trying to maintain the continued aggression and embargo against Iraq."

Iraq has been resentful of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for their playing host to U.S. and British warplanes that enforce one of the two no-fly zones, with the claimed aim of protecting the Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq since the Gulf War.

Senior Iraqi officials have expressed uncompromising stand toward Kuwait in recent days.

Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said on March 19 that Iraq had no plan for dialog with Kuwait at the summit. Foreign Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahaf was more blunt by declaring a day later that there would be no reconciliation with Kuwait and he would not meet his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah at the summit.

Kuwait, GCC Stand Firm

Al-Sabah, for his part, made clear on March 19 that there will be no reconciliation until Baghdad apologizes for its invasion of the small emirate releases prisoners of war (POWs) and returns " stolen property."

Kuwait said that more than 600 people, including Kuwaitis and third country nationals, disappeared during Iraq's seven-month occupation of Kuwait. Iraq admitted that it did take prisoners during retreat from the emirate, but lost track of them during an uprising in southern Iraq shortly after the Gulf War.

At the Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Amman on March 24-25, Kuwait reaffirmed its demand for Iraq's formal apology for invasion and a guarantee from fellow Arab League members that Iraq will never attack it again.

Saudi Arabia, in staunch alliance with Kuwait, has decided to lower its level of representation at the summit to protest the importance given to the Iraqi issue.

Meanwhile, other Gulf countries also stook a firm stand toward Iraq by denouncing Iraqi officials' threatening remarks against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In a resolution adopted on March 17, foreign ministers of the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also called on Iraq "to execute the commitments contained in U.N. Security Council resolutions."

Arab Sentiment Against Sanctions Strong

Despite their discords with Iraq, four members of the GCC -- the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar -- have reopened their embassies in Iraq after a 10-year break.

Iraq has also resumed diplomatic relations with Egypt, and there has been rapid rapprochement between Baghdad and Damascus recently. Both Egypt and Syria took part in the anti-Iraqi alliance during the Gulf War.

Moreover, the plight of the Iraqi people has prompted most Arab countries to call for lifting the sanctions and defy a U.S.- insisted air embargo to fly aid and solidarity planes to Baghdad.

During his tour of the Mideast region last month, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was urged by Arab leaders, except Kuwait's, to lift or reconsider the sanctions policy.

Even Saudi Arabia backed the easing of sanctions against Iraq.

"The two sides have agreed on the need to reconsider the sanctions regime on Iraq and find a way to relieve hardships facing the Iraqi people," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said on February 26 after talks with Powell.

Kuwait has also expressed regret over the suffering of the sanctions-stricken Iraqis.

Consensus on Lifting Sanctions Expected

As most Arab countries have lost interest in the sanctions and are critical of repeated U.S. and British air raids against Iraq, the Arab summit is expected to have little problem in reaching a consensus on calling for an end to the economic sanctions against Iraq.

However, Arab leaders are unlikely to satisfy Iraq's demand for a unilateral lifting of the U.N. sanctions, because its invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War have aggravated inter-Arab relations, and long-standing Arab differences on the contentious Iraqi issue can not be solved overnight.

In addition, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which would rather see a militarily-contained Iraq, will most probably endorse the so- called "smart sanctions" -- to ease curbs on Iraq's imports of civilian goods but shore up control on materials that can be used for military purposes.

The summit is also expected to urge Iraq to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1284, which offers suspension of the U. N. sanctions in return for Iraq's full cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors.

However, as Iraq firmly rejects the resolution and vows no reconciliation with Kuwait, analysts believe the Arab summit will achieve little in resolving the Iraq issue, despite strenuous effort to close the Arab ranks and reintegrate Iraq into the Arab world.

(Xinhua 03/26/2001)