Crucial weeks for peace diplomacy in Middle East
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s state visit to Saudi Arabia that starts tomorrow will set off several weeks of intense diplomatic activity in the Middle East. The Saudis, probably in conjunction with the Americans, seem eager to take the diplomatic initiative in Lebanon and Iraq after their success in brokering the Makkah accord between Fatah and Hamas that ended months of bloody inter-Palestinian clashes.
Amadinejad’s visit is taking place after recent bilateral Iranian-Saudi talks and a meeting between Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and before the March 10 Baghdad conference and an Arab summit in Riyadh at the end of the month.
As part of this process Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who is expected in Damascus to meet Syrian President Bachar al-Assad, might later travel Saudi Arabia. The Syrian president might even meet Egypt’s Mubarak.
In the background Washington’s new attitude underscored by its decision to attend the Baghdad conference along with Iran and Syria is playing a role.
As part of this shifting landscape, the State Department announced that Assistant Secretary Ellen Sauerbrey will travel to Damascus in the “coming weeks … to follow up on . . . [the] humanitarian mission” for Iraqi refugees. The planned trip was “not a bilateral mission,” according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, but it is the first visit by a high-ranking US official to Syria since February 2005 when the US ambassador was withdrawn following allegations that Syrian officials were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
In the current climate, the Saudis want to block Iran’s attempt to widen its role in the Middle East through its nuclear programme and support for Shia movements in Iraq, Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Palestine (Hamas), whilst the Iranians want to break their isolation, accentuated by existing and future UN sanctions and made worse by the fears of the region’s hitherto dominant Sunni majority of Shia aggressiveness.
Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia said that Ahmadinejad wants to talk about the latest developments in the region, especially Lebanon and Iraq, the world of Islam, and ways to bolster bilateral relations.
Lebanese paper An Nahar quoted a diplomatic source in Riyadh as saying that no initiative will be announced to find a way out of the crisis in Lebanon, but both sides will urge various Lebanese factions “to find a solution” to the country’s political deadlock.
No less complicated will be their discussion about the Iraq problem where the two major Middle Eastern powers find themselves on opposite sides along the Sunni-Shia divide.
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