CAIRO, 9 December 2006 — The Arab League yesterday damned a report urging a shift in US policy on Iraq, calling it a face-saving effort, but its chief commended it.
The 22-member group said it was astounded by the US Iraq Study Group report, which it said trampled on the rights of Iraqis and made saving face a priority, the official MENA news agency said.
The comments came after Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa praised part of Wednesday’s report, which called for a diplomatic push for Middle East peace, saying the time was ripe for concerted international action.
Moussa called the report “very interesting, full of very sound recommendations” after talks in Washington with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Iraq Study Group warned that the situation in Iraq was “grave and deteriorating.” It called for most US combat troops to be withdrawn by early 2008, for Washington to engage in dialogue with Iran and Syria and for a fresh US bid to broker an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Arab League’s official responsible for Iraq, Ali Al-Jarush, was quoted by MENA as saying the League was “astounded that the Baker-Hamilton report carries on regardless of the rights of Iraqis and limits itself to making it a priority to preserve the aura, interests and face-saving of the American administration.”
He lashed out at Arab states as well as at the United States. “The interest shown by Arab countries in the report only proves our total powerlessness, for we stand by doing nothing and tied up while solutions are proposed by others — notably the United States, the main occupying force” in Iraq, he said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s foreign minister arrived in the United States yesterday amid worries that the Jewish state’s main ally could shift course.
