The fact that the Arab League summit took place in Baghdad at all could be considered something of a coup. It was supposed to take place there around the same time last year but due to political conditions in a number of Arab nations – at the time, the Arab spring protests and their results were in full effect –it was postponed. Rumour has it that behind the scenes at the Arab League, requests were also made to move the summit out of Baghdad. It was also suggested that the full blown Arab League summit be replaced by a less formal meeting, which national leaders wouldn’t attend but could send more low ranking representatives to instead.
Some of these obstacles were obviously overcome. The summit did happen in Baghdad - although it seems as though some of the Gulf Arab states did stick with the idea of only sending low-level representation.
The fact that the summit was held at all is due in no small part to pressure applied by the US. A high ranking diplomatic source in Iraq says that Baghdad is in no doubt that there had been real pressure exerted to ensure that Arab nations all attended the summit in Baghdad, no matter how low their level of representation.
Additionally in order for the summit to happen, there was a preliminary compromise made. As the chair of the session, Iraq had to promise not to bring up the political issues currently afflicting Bahrain – where pro-democracy protestors are being forcibly suppressed – and they also had to promise not to include anything about this issue in the summit’s closing statements. In return, the Gulf Arab nations would not bring up Iraq’s internal political strife, which saw the Iraqi parliament come to a standstill earlier this year.
And of course, there were also criticisms. One of the biggest stories in local and international media had to do with the security clampdown on Baghdad that made locals’ lives miserable for almost two weeks. Already congested streets became impossible to traverse, food prices rose, businesses shut down, deliveries couldn’t get through and taxi drivers hiked fees dramatically; the city was virtually locked down.
Comments are closed.