GRIM START OF THE IRAQI NEIGHBOURS CONFERENCE OF DAMASCUS

DAMASCUS, First of November (IPS) The meeting of Iraqi neighbours that opened in Damascus Saturday was doomed to fail as Iraq decided to keep away from it, stating that Baghdad would not “accept any recommendations or decisions that come out of this meeting without Iraq's participation".

Foreign Affairs ministers from Iraq neighbours, namely Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria plus that of Egypt, worried by the escalating violence in the US-occupied country and the risks of regional instability, was called by Syria that originally had not invited Mr. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi interim government’s top diplomat.

The past week has seen the worst bloodshed since US troops entered Baghdad in April, with a wave of car-bombings in the Iraqi capital prompting a host of foreign missions to withdraw or downscale their staff, undermining the post-war reconstruction effort.

But under pressures from Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia that had menaced to boycott the meeting if Iraq was not present in the one hand and Iran, one of the few first nations to have recognised the American-installed Provisory Government of Iraq on the other, Syria sent an 11^th hour an invitation to Mr. Zebari in order to “save” the meeting from total collapse.

"The way the invitation has been extended was not in keeping with Iraq's dignity", Mr. Zerbari, , who is a Kurd belonging to the Democratic Party of (Iraqi) Kurdistan led by Mr. Mas’oud Barzani, told a press conference in Baghdad.

"In the absence of a frank and clear invitation from the Syrian government for Iraq to participate in the Damascus meeting, it is impossible to take part", he explained.

"A few of us don't see the logic of a meeting without Iraq, especially since it was called for by Syria to discuss Iraq", AFP quoted a diplomat close to the meeting as having said on condition of anonymity.

"We believe Iraq ought to be represented at any meeting dealing with the country", Jordanian Foreign Affairs Minister Marwan Mo’asher said before his departure from Amman for the talks.

"We are in favour of any cooperation with the interim Governing Council that might lead to a rapprochement between Arab states and Iraq, and help put an end to the occupation of the country and improve its internal situation."

Mo’asher, pointing out that it would have been “perverse” to have denied Zebari a seat in Saturday's talks given that Arab ministers had already admitted him to an Arab League meeting in Cairo in September.

“The failure of Iraq’s Foreign Minister to attend the meeting has compounded the situation while some sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have foreseen that emerging tension would cast doubt on the confab”, the official Iranian news agency IRNA commented.

“They said the deliberations among the participants would take place behind closed doors and the prospects of public discussions are grim”, the Agency said, quoting the same sources as having warned that of the “eventuality of the verbal disputes among participants”.

However, a senior Iraqi diplomat had called on the participants “to do more” to stop the infiltration of foreign militants that the US Administration holds responsible for the growing violence in Iraq, including daily attacks on American forces.

"We are asking neighbours to help us curb border infiltration and hand us information on all persons who infiltrate into Iraq". "The issue of terrorism remains a priority", AFP quoted the diplomat who was speaking on condition of anonymity.

The first such encounter took place in Istanbul last April before the fall of Saddam Hoseyn, the Iraqi dictator.

"It is only natural that the meeting should address the difficulties of the Iraqi people and try to find the means to put an end to the occupation", Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Bushra Kanafani said.

Like all other participants, Syria had opposed the US-led war and the American military presence in Iraq, with whose regime it had long been at odds before a rapprochement with Saddam in the mid-1990s.

But Washington says all the neighbours, but most particularly Syria could do more to prevent Islamic militants infiltrating Iraq through their borders.

A key issue at the Damascus meeting will be whether to contribute troops to a stabilisation force. Under US pressure, only Turkey has so far agreed to send troops, although no action has been taken on the ground, a decision vehemently opposed by the Iraqi interim government, a “melting pot” made of various Iraqi forces, including the two mainstreams, namely the Kurds and the Shi’ites that make the majority of the Iraqi population.

For Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, a pillar of the old guard who form a circle around President Bashar al-Assad, it is "out of the question" for Syria to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq.

No Arab country would take such action, he said last week during a meeting with a delegation of Iraqi parties not represented in the Governing Council. The visit raised question marks over the intentions of the Syrian leadership.

The Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Kharrazi was one of the first ministers to arrive in Damascus on Saturday morning to take part in the fourth ministerial meeting of Iraq’s neighbours.

Heading a high- ranking delegation to the two-day meeting which is expected to debate the latest developments of Iraq and their effects on the security and stability of its neighbours, Mr. Kharrazi said he hoped that the conference could reach a “certain consensus” over the best ways and means to contribute to Iraq’s stabilisation, according to an Iranian diplomat speaking on condition that not be named .

“The meeting is also expected to discuss the assistance that Iraq’s neighbours can provide for the reconstruction of the country”, he added, pointing out that Iran made some “constructive undertakings” at the Iraqi Donors conference that took place in Madrid on 23 and 24 October.

At that meeting, Iran, the only participant that has no diplomatic relation with the United States while others, except the host country, are Washington’s close allies in the region, Tehran had offered to help actively in the reconstruction of Iraq by providing natural gas and electricity to the predominantly Shi’ite inhabited southern Iraq.

The Turkish, Egyptian, Jordanian, Iranian, Kuwaiti and Saudi ministers have taken part in a sundown Iftar, the meal which follows the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, hosted by their Syrian counterpart at a Damascus restaurant.

Commenting on the aims of the Damascus meeting, Syrian foreign
ministry spokesman said the meeting would by no means interfere in the
internal affairs of Iraq but it would probe into the repercussions of the developments of Iraq over its neighbour states and the regional countries.

The last meeting of Iraq’s neighbours was held in Tehran in June on the sidelines of the ministerial conference of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the official Iranian news agency IRNA said in a dispatch from Damascus. IRAQI NEIGHBOURS CONFERENCE 11103