Iraq calls for UAE to open Baghdad embassies

Cairo, June 7: Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi called on Egypt and other Arab states today to reopen their embassies in Baghdad to help preserve what he termed Iraq's 'endangered' Arab identity.

''It is important to us that Arab and Egyptian representation (in Iraq) be permanent and complete, to preserve Arab identity in Iraq because this identity is in danger,'' Hashemi told reporters after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

''A responsible Arab stance is necessary to confront this danger.'' A meeting of Iraq's Arab neighbours in December issued a statement that contained veiled references to the fears of Arab governments that Iranian influence is growing in Iraq and that Iraq might break up or lose its Arab identity.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said at the conclusion of that meeting: ''Some foreign and regional parties are trying to affect the internal situation in Iraq by extending their political influence and through cultural penetration.'' Aboul Gheit has in the past used the expression ''cultural penetration'' in Iraq in connection with Iran, which has longstanding cultural and social links with southern Iraq.

Reuters>