The Arab League envoy to Iraq, Ahmed Bin Hili, said on Wednesday that Iraq is ready to host the next Arab League Summit, expected to be held in Baghdad in March.

According to AKnews, Bin Hili arrived in Baghdad on 30th January to inspect the preparations for the summit, which has been postponed several times since March of last year  due to the wave of uprisings across the Arab world.

He told a joint press conference with the Iraqi Foreign Mnister Hoshyar Zebari that “all the preparations are there to make the next Arab Summit in Baghdad successful.”

The Arab League and the Iraqi Government have agreed on 29th March as the date for the Summit. Bin Hili said the agenda will be different this time, being more open and more interactive with the Arab [Spring] events.

Iraq’s Hoshyar Zebari said there was a real “desire and willingness” among many of the Arab countries to have an active participation in the summit in Baghdad.

The hosting of the Summit in Baghdad has been hailed by Iraqi leaders as a “national achievement” and symbolic of Iraq’s return to the Arab arena; Iraq last hosted the Summit in May 1990.

(Source: AKnews)

Last August, the government announced it was making available a total of US$ 300 mn to renovate six Baghdad hotels in preparation for the Arab League Summit. The six—the ISX-listed Palestine (HPAL), Babylon (HBAY), Baghdad (HBAG), Mansour (HMAN), and Ishtar Sheraton (HISH) hotels, and the unlisted Rashid Hotel—were to receive 75% of the new funding as interest-free loans, the remaining 25% as equity injections. (See my first post on this story here.)

While the Arab League Summit, originally scheduled for last month, was recently postponed to next year, the work on the hotels appears to have gone ahead as scheduled. In fact, most of it would presumably have to have been done by now to meet the original deadline.

That being the case, you would expect to see big increases on both sides of the hotels’ balance sheets. The value of their fixed assets should have gone up as a result of the renovations while debt and shareholders’ equity should have increased by a corresponding amount of loans and equity injections.

Strangely, however, this isn’t the case for HBAY, the only one of the five listed “Arab Summit plays” to have posted its first quarter financials so far. While the company could have received as much as US$ 50 mn from the government (if the US$ 300 mn were divided evenly among the six hotels), HBAY’s balance sheet actually shrank from IQD 1.43 bn (about US$ 1.2 mn) on 3/31/10 to IQD 1.37 bn on 9/30/10 to IQD 1.07 bn on 3/31/11. (These numbers are just a fraction of the company’s IQD 53 bn market cap, by the way.)

There’s also no sign of any capital injection—paid-in capital is the same on all three dates.

Passersby report seeing a banner outside the hotel announcing that the first phase of the renovations ended April 26. The second and final phase, it says, will be completed three months after that date. Apparently money is being spent. Is it a free gift from the government?

Iraq spent $450 million [540 billion Iraqi dinars] in preparation for the Arab League Summit, which has now been postponed for a year.

The money was spent planting palm trees along highways, re-paving roads and restoring a palace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to a report from Reuters.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Thursday the summit had been postponed to March 2012 after being put off twice this year amid regional turmoil and animosity towards Iraq by some Gulf Arab states after it criticised Bahrain’s crackdown on Shia’ite protesters.

Revamping Iraq’s capital included the refurbishment of six of Baghdad’s main hotels and repaving the city’s airport road, one of the most dangerous to travel on at the height of the war.

Many are questioning the amount of money spent on a regional summit expected to be attended by heads of state.

“What will we get from the summit? What is the benefit? We, the people, don’t understand the language of politics, we seek benefit,” a Baghdad barber told Reuters.

“They should have spent it on the electricity sector, which has suffered the most damage. I am 60 years old and in my life, I haven’t witnessed any benefit coming from Arab summits.”

Ali al-Moussawi, Prime Minister al-Maliki’s media adviser, said he was confident the money had not gone to waste.

“It is impossible to ignore our hotels and leave them in such a condition,” Moussawi said.

Around $40 million of the allocated $450 million was used to renovate Saddam’s Republican Palace, used as a U.S. embassy and military headquarters after the 2003 invasion, while Al Jazeera put the figure at $400m.

The 60-year-old palace, expected to house Arab leaders, has been kitted out with giant chandeliers and paintings of Babylon. Date palms adorn the garden, which also has a swimming pool.

“We had to work around the clock. Everything needed to be repaired, redone,” Osman Mimarsinanoglu, chairman of the Turkish Gorkem company told Reuters before the postponement.

The summit may also be a test of readiness for Iraq’s army and police. U.S. troops are scheduled to leave by year-end.

(Source: Reuters)

The Arab League meeting scheduled for May in Baghdad has been postponed until next year at the request of the Iraqi government, authorities said Thursday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa “have agreed to the postponement of the Arab Summit,” the Voices of Iraq news station reports.

UPI reports that a meeting was set for May 15 to review the Arab League schedule and possible replacements for Moussa, who is leaving the Arab League to run for president of Egypt.

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council expressed outrage over Baghdad’s criticism of the minority Sunni leadership in Bahrain, calling for the cancellation of the Arab League summit. The tiny island kingdom is under scrutiny for its response to a Shiite uprising.

Iraqi lawmakers had complained the pressure from the GCC was unnecessary at a time when the Arab world is plagued by simmering political unrest.

Iraqiya leader and former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was mentioned as a possible candidate for Arab League secretary-general.

(Source: UPI)

The Arab League announced on Wednesday that its members have agreed to postpone its summit, scheduled for May 11 in Baghdad, amid disputes over the venue and popular unrest rocking the region.

Arab foreign ministers will meet on May 15 to set a new date, Egypt’s state news agency MENA quoted the deputy secretary-general of the Arab League, Ahmed Ben Helli, as saying.

“The Arab League today distributed a memorandum to its members stating that due to a request by Iraq to convene an extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers, and in light of the consultations conducted … with member states, an agreement emerged to delay the summit,” Ben Helli was quoted as saying.

No Arab League officials were immediately available to give further details, according to a report from Reuters.

Mass demonstrations demanding political reforms have toppled the long-time leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are challenging the leaders of Syria and Yemen. The unrest has already prompted the Arab League to delay its summit from March to May.

The summit is supposed to discuss the unrest and choose a new secretary general to succeed Amr Moussa, whose term ends on May 15.

Gulf Arab states asked the Arab League to cancel the upcoming summit, the Bahraini foreign minister has said, after Iraq criticized Bahrain’s crackdown on Shi’ite protesters.

If the summit went ahead in Baghdad, it might help Iraq reassure neighbours, mainly Sunni Arab-dominated governments, who view the rise of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority with suspicion and fear the growing influence of Shi’ite-dominated Iran.

It would also be a test of the readiness of Iraq’s army and police as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by end-year.

(Source: Reuters)

Kings, presidents and emirs are invited to a former Saddam palace for the Arab League summit in May.

Saddam Hussein’s former palace in Baghdad has been completely renovated in preparation for the historic summit.

The palace, which has a history as tumultuous as the country’s, has been given a $400m makeover. Many hope the gleaming structure will show that Iraq, too, has been restored to its former glory.

Baghdad’s Al Rasheed Hotel has also been renovated.

Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf reports from the Iraqi capital:

Iraq’s State of Law Coalition, led by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, has reportedly proposed the head of the rival Iraqiya bloc, Iyad Allawi, to run for the position of  Secretary General of the Arab League following Amr Moussa’s resignation. Moussa will stand down in order to run for the presidency of Egypt.

The Iraqiya bloc welcomed the proposal, but said that it had not yet discussed Allawi’s nomination. Iraqiya members said naming Allawi as Arab League Secretary General is an honor for Iraqis.

Some political observers regard the development as positive for the political process in Iraq. Last week Allawi resigned as head of the National Council on Strategic Policies.

The Arab League is planning to hold its next summit in Baghdad in May.

(Sources: MENA, Al SumariaTV, UPI)

Iraq has agreed to postpone an Arab League summit scheduled for March 29 in Baghdad, a government official said on Thursday, according to a report from Reuters.

The move reportedly came following a request from Arab foreign ministers because of turmoil in some countries in the region.

“It has been agreed to postpone holding the Arab summit for a maximum period until May 15 in order to understand the situations which are taking place now in some countries,” said Ali al-Moussawi, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s media adviser.

“The postponement has nothing to do with Iraq, which is ready to hold this summit.”

The Arab League summit is viewed as important for Iraq’s reintegration into the Arab world. A successful summit would help Iraq to reassure its neighbours, mainly Sunni Arab-dominated governments, who view the rise of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority with suspicion and fear the growing influence of Shi’ite-dominated Iran.

It would also be a test of the readiness of its army and police as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw fully by the end of the year.

(Source: Reuters)