Stakes are high on all sides of an unstable Iraq 3 Edition

• Published in: The Boston globe
• Main Authors: AboulGheit, Ahmed, Gheit is Egyptian minister of foreign affairs
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, Mass Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC 17.05.2007
• Subjects: Constitutions; Government; Militia groups; Sectarian violence; Iraq
• ISSN: 0743-1791

The stakes are indeed high. Iraq's continuous slide into ethnic conflict and internal fragmentation poses enormous challenges for the region's security and stability. If left to fester, Iraq's sectarian fault lines will spill beyond its borders. The growing vacuum left by the breakdown of central authority will be filled by the rising influence of ethnic and tribally based militias. Iraq's neighbors will strive to fill that vacuum, thus increasing the propensity for regional intervention in Iraq's internal affairs, both to prevent the chaos from spreading to their own borders, and to cultivate proxies among Iraq's protagonists to increase their influence. All this will turn Iraq into a regional hub for terrorism similar to - if not worse than - that which prevailed in Afghanistan during the 1990s as it disintegrated into civil war in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal. Despite Egypt's disagreement with the United States over the invasion, this has not detracted from its efforts to ensure the emergence of a viable Iraq. Egypt was pivotal in forging an Arab consensus that allowed for acceptance of the Iraqi Governing Council into the Arab League following the war. President Mubarak's recent meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is clearly indicative of Egypt's support for his efforts at political reconciliation. It was this fundamental position that lay behind Egypt's hosting of the recent ministerial conference on Iraq, bringing together Iraq's neighbors and the international community to forge a new "International Compact" with Iraq.