Iraqi diplomacy after 2003: reorientation or loss of the compass?

by **Rocky** Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:49 am

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Iraqi diplomacy after 2003: reorientation or loss of the compass?

by Rocky Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:49 am

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FRI, 07-01-2022, AM 11:27
TAYSEER AL-ASSADI

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By: Hassan Al-Janabi
(part-7) *
The struggle for Arab leadership with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad was bitter, bloody and highly sensitive, because it is a partisan struggle and at the heart of the Baath Party organization and its rigid ideology. The conflict, in its violent form, extended into the two countries, Syria and Iraq, as well as the Lebanese and Palestinian arenas. It appeared in the form of bombings, armed organizations, defections, assassination attempts and executions, during which everything in the fields of conspiracy and intelligence was practiced from the secrets of bloody conflicts, with a tangible difference in the performance of the two parties.

Compare, for example, the “ingenuity” of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1976 in giving an Arab legitimate cover to the Syrian military intervention in Lebanon, in contrast to the reckless stances of the Baath government in Iraq and its constant resort to violence, treachery and volatility. This is what happened, for example, in its relationship with Iran before and after the Iranian revolution. As well as what happened in the fighting between the Palestinian factions, or in the assassinations of Palestinian and Iraqi leaders who were involved with the Palestinian resistance factions, including the Iraqi opposition journalist Adel Wasfi, known as Khaled Al-Iraqi, who was involved at the time in the frameworks of the Fatah movement led by Yasser Arafat, as he was liquidated on 20 6/1979 in Beirut.
Similar qualifiers took place for other opponents in many parts of the world, including the leftist oppositionist Tawfiq Rushdi, who was assassinated on 1/6/1979 in Yemen, and the dissident Sheikh Talib al-Suhail on 2/4/1994 in Beirut, and he is the father of Ambassador Safia al-Suhail. Unsuccessful attempts were also made to assassinate Professor Fakhri Karim on August 27, 1982 in Beirut, Dr. Ayad Allawi on February 4, 1978 in London, and the liquidation of General Abdul Razzaq Al-Nayef on 9/7/1978 in London as well, in addition to previous assassinations in time such as the assassination of General Hardan al-Tikriti on 30/3/1971 in Kuwait and so on.
The Iraqi embassies were used as advanced centers for planning and implementation in most of these activities, some of which were taking place under the obsession of the bitter conflict with Hafez al-Assad and at other times with the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
On the other hand, a similar conflict was taking place with Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, albeit to a lesser degree. In the Syrian and Libyan cases, the conflict was taking place against the background of the two countries' relationship with Iran, in addition to other considerations, including ideological and others related to the leadership ambitions of the three poles. The interesting thing is that the three seeking Arab leadership, Saddam Hussein, Hafez al-Assad and Muammar Gaddafi, their countries ended in destruction and instability, so Iraq was occupied after the destruction of its military and economic capabilities and the outbreak of civil war in Syria and Libya.
Those “leaders” squandered their efforts and the wealth of their countries on activities outside their national borders in moments of arrogance, tyranny and irresponsibility, forgetting that the national “inside” is the main actor for countries’ stability and prosperity. The peoples of the region did not reap from their foreign adventures, false leadership ambitions, and fanatical ideologies, only disappointments, pain, poverty, occupation and civil wars.
The three leaders, similar in the intensity of the internal repression of their people, “competed” for funding various conflicting armed organizations in Palestine, Lebanon, Eritrea and others. At the time when Hafez al-Assad succeeded in 1976 in convincing the Arab League of the “legitimate” existence of what was then called the “Arab Deterrence Forces,” a decision that the Iraqi Baath regime objected to, which did not attend the meeting for that in the first place, Iraq had indulged in harnessing its espionage capabilities. And the great intelligence services to crush his opponents and those who disagree with his orientations, even if they are non-Iraqis in Iraq and abroad. He supported, financed and armed the formation of auxiliary or schismatic organizations, including the “Arab Liberation Front” and others on the Palestinian level.
After the sharpening of differences with the leadership of the Palestinian Fatah Organization, Iraq enlisted the controversial figure Abu Nidal (Sabri al-Banna), who became Saddam's puppet for a long period of time. Abu Nidal carried out assassination crimes against Palestinian leaders, including Saeed Hamami in Paris, Izz al-Din Qalq in London, Naim Khader in Brussels, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) in Tunisia, and writer Youssef al-Sibai in Egypt and others, but his attempt to assassinate Abdel Halim Khaddam was unsuccessful, as was his attempt to assassinate The Israeli ambassador in London, which was the pretext used to invade Lebanon in June 1982.
It is interesting that Abu Nidal’s loyalties extended under different circumstances to serve the Syrian and Libyan regimes as well, but his tragic end came at the hands of Saddam’s intelligence in Baghdad on charges of conspiring with Kuwait, as was said, but it was also rumored that he committed suicide in his apartment in Baghdad on August 17, 2002.
At that time, the Iraqi embassies engaged in expanding and planning their activities according to the prevailing trends and the instructions in force, to be their striking arm or diplomatic “cover”, although some of these activities were sometimes carried out without the knowledge of the ambassadors.
In parallel with the “nationalist” activity in the Arab world, Saddam Hussein was striving to achieve his broader dual goal of leading the Third World and besieging Iran diplomatically, after he was empowered by the circumstances that forced him to sign the 1975 agreement with the Iranian Shah.
During that time, Iraq focused on working on the African continent, and the work resulted in a wide diplomatic representation that included the establishment of (13) embassies on the black continent, providing material aid and opening universities for study, and so on. At that time, the Iraqi political and economic influence in Africa increased a lot, including in the military field, as in Chad, which was in conflict with Gaddafi.
Until today, Iraq still owns valuable real estate in some African capitals, and the current Iraqi diplomatic presence in Africa, which is symbolic in part, is due to the preservation of these properties and real estate. Personally, I think that some of these properties have been squandered and others are on the way to being lost and seized by the citizens of those countries. This is a real dilemma, as it is not possible to restore these properties without long, expensive and unsecured courts, especially in light of the Iraqi inability to defend its sovereign rights before international courts. In 2018, I was the head of the Africa Department in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, and I was acquainted with some of those details.
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Iraqi diplomacy after 2003: reorientation or loss of the compass?

Iraqi diplomacy after 2003: reorientation or loss of the compass?

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