Yes ? Reluctant reconciliation,Arabs lay down the rules before they consider supporting Al-Maliki's government, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki kicked off a regional tour in Cairo this week, attempting to seek help to stabilise his beleaguered and violence-torn country. During his first tour of the Arab region, he also tried to drum up support for next month's international conference in Egypt aimed at quelling the raging bloodshed in Iraq. His tour comes against a backdrop of the warning directed by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Iraqi leaders that they need to work faster to reconcile their rival factions as American support cannot be taken for granted for ever.

In Cairo, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Al-Maliki that Egypt supports Iraq's attempt to achieve peace, security and stability but he strongly emphasised "the need to achieve national reconciliation between all sects of Iraqi society". Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa delivered a similar message to Al-Maliki. But the Middle East News Agency elaborated further when it quoted an Egyptian diplomatic source as saying that the Arab governments will link their support for Al-Maliki's government to a package of reforms they have suggested.

The Arab governments have been suspicious of Iraq's new leadership, blaming it for fuelling sectarian violence. At their summit in Saudi Arabia last month, Arab leaders took a tough line on Iraq, demanding it change its constitution and the set-up of its armed forces to include more Sunnis and end the de-Baathification programme that uprooted former members of Saddam Hussein's regime from the government.

The Arabs' message echoed similar frustration by Washington on Al-Maliki's failure so far to achieve the much-discussed national reconciliation. During a visit to Baghdad last week, Gates urged Iraqi leaders to end sectarian violence and warned that American troops would not stay on indefinitely if no progress was made.

"Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraqi streets open-endedly," he said after meeting Al-Maliki. Gates said he had spoken to the Iraqi leader about "reaching out to the Sunnis" to end the bloodletting that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. They discussed efforts to end the Shia-Sunni conflict and the accountability and reconciliation law which aims to promote reconciliation and national unity among Iraqis. The law is a refinement of the controversial de-Baathification law. It aims to re- integrate former supporters of Saddam into public life in a bid to reduce the bitterness of fuelling the Sunni anti-American campaign.

On Monday US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker also warned that Iraq's feuding leaders had to move away from an all or nothing approach to reach the broad political compromises necessary for healing their fractured country. Crocker, in his first news conference since arriving in Baghdad in March, said the months ahead for Al-Maliki's shaky coalition government would be important. "I think the Baghdad security plan can buy time, but what it does is buy time for what it ultimately has to do -- a set of political understandings among Iraqis. So I think these months ahead are going to be critical," Crocker said.

Al-Maliki rejected Arab conditions for backing his government's efforts to stabilise the strife- torn nation and accused some Arab countries of still harbouring terrorists who infiltrate into Iraq. "We welcome consultations but we won't accept conditions or dictation," he said at a press conference on Monday.

He further denied that the soaring violence in Iraq is sectarian and accused the Al-Qaeda terror group and loyalists of the former regime of Saddam Hussein of attempts to torpedo his government's efforts to restore stability. Al-Maliki also accused some Arab countries of harbouring and facilitating funding for foreign fighters to infiltrate into Iraq. "They should stop these factories of terrorism," he said. He also repeated that his priorities remained national reconciliation, restoring security and legislative reform."

While in Cairo , Al-Maliki announced that he ordered a halt to a construction barrier being built by the US military that would separate a Sunni enclave from Shia areas of Baghdad. The barrier has drawn sharp criticism from residents and Sunni leaders who complained it would isolate the community. Hundreds of Sunnis held a protest in Baghdad Monday to oppose its construction in their neighbourhood.

Al-Maliki's visit comes 10 days prior to two conferences on Iraq which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh. The first meeting intends to officially launch an International Compact with Iraq [ICI] in May, aimed at strengthening the international organisation's role in Iraq. The second conference will be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. This conference broadly seeks to create a framework within which world powers and Iraq's neighbours can help Iraqis end the raging sectarian conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since last year.

Such American and Arab frustration will most certainly impact discussions at the gathering of Iraq's neighbours and the global conferences on Iraq in Egypt next month. The participants of the meetings will launch a three-level process of negotiations on Iraq: the first will be political reconciliation inside Iraq and the second will cover the regional process embodied by bilateral US talks with Iran and Syria. The third will focus on gathering a wider group of interested nations that could help stabilise Iraq as US military forces are gradually withdrawn.

Those who will attend the two conferences at Sharm El-Sheikh might next week find themselves in a deadlock over their priorities. While Al-Maliki will press for support for his security plan to uproot the insurgency, the rest of the participants will press ahead with demands that he should make progress on reconciliation which is ultimately the only solution to the conflict.

Prince Harry to be sent to Iraq, Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq with his regiment, the head of the British army has confirmed. Gen Sir Richard Dannatt said he had taken the decision personally but stressed it would be kept under review. He called for an end to the "somewhat frenzied media speculation around this issue... in the interests of all our people deployed in Iraq at this time".

There have been fears for the safety of the prince in Iraq amid apparently worsening tensions in the country.

Gen Dannatt added: "The decision has been taken that he will deploy. I will of course keep that decision continually under review, and if circumstances are such that I change that decision, I will make a further statement."

Bloody conflict

In February, Clarence House and the MoD confirmed the prince would be sent to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, saying he would take on a "normal troop commander's role" rather than a desk job.

The prince has long stated his wish to be in active service.

But concerns for his safety, and that of his soldiers, grew more intense after 12 UK troops were killed this month, one of the bloodiest since the conflict began.

The prince, 22, has taken part in preparation exercises. As an officer, he would be in charge of 11 soldiers carrying out reconnaissance work using four armoured Scimitar vehicles, each with a crew of three.

It is thought that the prince has always insisted he should not be treated differently because of his status.

The prince, known as Cornet Wales, graduated from Sandhurst in April last year and qualified as an armoured reconnaissance troop leader in October.

His rank of cornet is used by a small number of cavalry units including the Blues and Royals. It is the equivalent of the more usual rank of 2nd lieutenant. He is known to colleagues as Troop Commander Wales.

Safety debate

The deployment would make the prince the first royal to undertake a tour of duty in a war zone since the Duke of York served in the Falklands conflict in 1982.

Sir John Nott, Conservative defence secretary during the Falklands War, said the issue of Harry's deployment was different from his uncle's because the war in Iraq was "much more fraught" and did not have "complete public support".

Critics have suggested the risks to the prince are too great but others have claimed that insurgents will not be able to ascertain exactly where he has been deployed.

Dutchman's Noah's ark opens doors,A half-sized replica of the biblical Noah's Ark has been built by a Dutch man, complete with model animals.Dutch creationist Johan Huibers built the ark as testament to his literal belief in the Bible. The ark, in the town of Schagen, is 150 cubits long - half the length of Noah's - and three storeys high. A cubit was about 45cm (18in) long.

The ark opened its doors on Saturday, after almost two years' construction, most of it by Mr Huiber himself.

'Past comprehension'

"The design is by my wife, Bianca," Mr Huibers said. "She didn't really want me to do this at all, but she said if you're going to anyway, it should look like this."

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras and bison are included in the ark's interior.

The Bible's Book of Genesis says Noah kept seven pairs of most tamed animals and one breeding pair of all other creatures in the boat, which survived a catastrophic flood sent down by God to punish man.


Mr Huibers, a contractor, built the ark out of cedar and pine - because Biblical scholars are still not sure as to which type of wood was used in the ark's construction.

He began building in May 2005, after he dreamed of the Netherlands being flooded.

"In February 1992, I had a dream that Holland will become flooded. The next day, I found a book about Noah's Ark in the local bookshop, and since then, my dream has been to build the ark," he said.

Visitors were stunned. "It's past comprehension," Mary Louise Starosciak told the Associated Press.

"I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big."

The ark includes a 50-seat theatre showing a segment of the Disney film Fantasia retelling the story of Noah's Ark.

US visitor Lois Poppema told AP she thought the Netherlands was the right place for an ark to be built: "Just a few weeks ago we saw Al Gore on television .. saying that all Holland will be flooded.

"I don't think the man who made this ever expected that global warning will become [such an important] issue - and suddenly having the ark would be meaningful in the middle of Holland."

Iraq's prime minister comes to Cairo amid ongoing violence nationwide and a refugee crisis that threatens to overwhelm the region. Were solutions proposed, asks Dina Ezzat
An end to the plight of Iraqis inside and outside of Iraq requires action, not policy statements. Judging by the outcome of this week's visit to Cairo by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki -- the first by the Shia politician -- it seems sure that neither the Iraqi government nor key regional states (not to mention the US and other international forces) are ready to engage a plan of action for stabilising the situation in Iraq. Nor could they if even they wanted, some argue.

"What are we supposed to make of this visit by Maliki? Nothing. Maliki and people like him are a major part of the problem in Iraq," comments Ahmed, one Iraqi living in Cairo. "They are not the government of the Iraqi people. They are not Iraqis -- not real Iraqis. They are power groups that are only after their interests. They do not care for the Iraqis," he adds.

Having arrived last summer in the wake of the escalation of sectarian violence and speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from his appliances store on the outskirts of Cairo, Ahmed is full of bitterness over the "role of those who call themselves Iraqis" in what befell him, his family and three million other Iraqis forced to flee Iraq since the US invasion in 2003 as well as Iraqis who are still living "in hell because they have no escape".

Ahmed, a 40-year-old Sunni, and his wife, a Shia, and their three daughters were all born and brought up in Baghdad. "Even under the nightmarish years of the invasion of Kuwait [in the early 1990s] and the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq things were okay. We were afraid of Saddam Hussein but we could have led a peaceful life if we simply avoided politics. Today, there is no such thing as a peaceful life in Baghdad," Ahmed laments.

"It is not just politics or one tyrant that you have to avoid; it is also religion, your sect, your neighbourhood, all the Sunni and Shia leaders, and everything else. And still, you can never tell if you will escape being killed or not; you cannot tell if your children will be spared or not," he adds.

It was this feeling of "continuous horror" that turned Ahmed's initial optimism in the wake of the dissolution of the previous regime into dismay and then almost nostalgia for the days under Saddam. "Before there was one devil. Today there are endless devils... some you know and some you do not."

For Ahmed as for many other Iraqis who spoke to the Weekly, Sunni and Shia alike, the government of Maliki and those prior to it failed the Iraqis. "I am 27 years old. I knew nothing of the good old days of Iraq that my parents used to speak of," says Mortada, also an Iraqi refugee now in Cairo. "I was born and brought up when Iraq was going through its wars with Iran, Kuwait, and the rest of the world. I only experienced sanctions and suffering," he says. When the regime of Saddam was toppled, Mortada hoped that the new governments of Iraq would bring fairness and, if not necessarily immediately, development and prosperity. Like Ahmed, Mortada is shocked by what he calls the "dismal performance of one Iraqi government after another."

For Ahmed and Mortada, post-invasion Iraqi governments are sectarian and offer no hope for the future. Iraqis in exile complain about all political leaders, Sunni or Shia, regardless of their own sect. Many Sunni Iraqis who spoke to the Weekly in Cairo emphasised their familial ties with Shias, just as Shias underlined familial ties with Sunnis. "I am Shia and I am living with two Sunni friends," says Mortada. "We share the same apartment and we work together in small jobs ill-fitted for our university degrees," adding that when one of the three is out of work, which happens often, the others provide for him.

Iraqis in Egypt seeking refuge are not all registered with the United Nations Humanitarian Centre for Refugees (UNHCR). Having their passports marked "refugee" is not easy for the average proud Iraqi to reconcile with. "I had to do it, because otherwise my son would not have been admitted to school and couldn't graduate into university," commented one Iraqi woman who asked for her name to be withheld. Having spent over a year trying to register herself as an investor -- a route that many Iraqis with financial means take in order to gain residency in Egypt -- this lady had no other choice but to take refugee status. "As a result I cannot leave the country and come back freely. I cannot visit my sister who has taken refuge in Syria. And if I ever try to go back to Baghdad to visit my husband, who has been repeatedly denied an entry visa to Egypt, I would not be able to come back to my son," she said, tears coming to her eyes.

There is no clear official estimate of the number of Iraqis who have fled to Egypt since the invasion, especially during the last year as the security situation deteriorated dramatically and as both Jordan and Syria, who play host to over two million Iraqis, refuse to accommodate more. Rough estimates suggest that there are between 70,000 and 100,000 Iraqis in Egypt, mostly in Cairo. Less than 10 per cent are registered as refugees.

"We never wanted to leave our country or seek refuge elsewhere. We lived under so much suffering during the days of Saddam, but we did not leave," said Ali, another Iraqi exiled in Cairo. He added: "It was the indiscriminate bombings and the kidnap and rape of our women that forced us out and is obliging us to put up with the humiliation of being treated as unwelcome guests."

It is hard to exaggerate the suffering of Iraqis seeking refuge away from their once prosperous country. Entire families have been forced, either by fear or under direct physical threat, to leave their homes and businesses. Some made it out safely, and together. Others were divided in the process.

"I came with my parents; my husband was supposed to follow in a few days after selling our properties," said a 25-year-old Iraqi women. Seven-months pregnant, she is not sure what happened to her husband because she lost touch with him. She is not sure if he is alive or, "God forbid", dead, or whether he will make it to be with her when their first child is born. A female friend of the woman told the Weekly that due to health complications that resulted from her continuous grieving it is uncertain whether or not the rest of her pregnancy will be safe.

"What can Maliki do for me? Nothing. Does he care for me? Those leaders just want to please the US, or Iran, or somebody else, but not us, the Iraqis. We are not on their minds," said the pregnant woman before breaking into tears.

Her emotional outburst brings words of sympathy from Iraqis passing by. "You are Iraqi. You must have faith in God. God is generous," they say as they see her sobbing on a pavement in Al-Ordoniyah, a district of 6th October City outside Cairo.

Every Iraqi who spoke to the Weekly, whether affluent or burdened by financial concerns, had but one answer to the question of what should be the outcome of the visit of Maliki to Egypt: agree with Egyptian authorities to make it easier for Iraqis forced to live in Egypt "until the situation gets better in Iraq".

"It is not in our hands. We cannot go back. We know that we might have to be here for a year or two, but we don't know if they will let us stay or not," said Zeinab, a middle-aged housewife. "If the Iraqi government cannot secure for Iraqis the basic requirements they need, especially personal safety in Iraq, then the least it could do is to speak to other governments to accommodate Iraqi refugees," she added.

Egyptian officials say that they have done their best to accommodate Iraqis; that Egyptian sympathy with the tragedy that befell the Iraqi nation in the wake of the US invasion and the consequent security deterioration prompted officials to allow entrance for close to 100,000 Iraqis, "Sunnis and Shias alike", to live in Egypt without harassment. Some sources indicate, however, that at the end of the day it is the paramount duty of Egyptian authorities to serve the interests of the Egyptian people. As such, Egyptian authorities deemed "inappropriate the 'doors wide open' policy for indefinite numbers of Iraqis to come and live in Egypt".

The concerns offered by security authorities are not easily countered. Authorities say they have a legitimate concern about having "just any Iraqis enter and live in Egypt" at a time when Al-Qaeda has made a hub out of Baghdad. They also say that despite amicable feelings that bond Sunni and Shia Iraqis who live in Egypt, there are no guarantees that tensions in Iraq would not be reflected in Egypt. Furthermore, security authorities are uncomfortable with the rising number of Shias in Egypt, given the prevalent security doctrine that all Shias are affiliated to Iran's political and security agenda.

Despite this context, sources say that the issue of Iraqi refugees in Egypt was not the number one item on the agenda of talks with Maliki held in Cairo Sunday, although it was discussed with promises made on the Cairo side to make accommodations and on the part of Maliki to work towards improving the situation on the ground, especially for residents of Baghdad, so that Iraqis don't have to flee.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of Maliki's arrival, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said that, "the success of the Iraqi government to achieve national reconciliation is the best way to address the situation of Iraqi refugees and displaced individuals since it would allow them to go back to their homes in what would be the ultimate solution to their problem."

Maliki's meeting with President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential headquarters in Heliopolis Sunday morning was private. Neither Maliki nor the presidential spokesman spoke to the press afterwards. Following talks with Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Sunday afternoon, however, Maliki did address the press. The Iraqi prime minister said he urged Cairo to take part in Iraq's reconstruction and received an encouraging response.

"It was a positive and comprehensive meeting and we discussed the problems in Iraq. I clarified to the president the reality of what is going on in Iraq, which is not a civil or sectarian war," Maliki said during a joint press conference with Nazif. "We found that Egypt is ready to be a partner in Iraq's reconstruction and that Egyptian companies have a role that we are ready to support."

For his part, Nazif said the situation in Iraq and international efforts to help the embattled Arab nation had been discussed. "Egypt stands by Iraq and we affirm our support for the Iraqi government's efforts towards reconciliation between all parts of Iraqi society. We condemn indiscriminate terrorism," Nazif said.

Neither Maliki nor Nazif referred to demands made by the former for Egypt to consider posting a diplomatic presence in Baghdad to encourage the return of Arab diplomats to the Iraqi capital since the slaying of Ihab El-Sherif, head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission, in the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2004. Informed sources told the Weekly that Cairo made no promises on this front on the basis that it would be a terrible setback if another Egyptian diplomat was harmed in Baghdad. What Cairo promised instead is to encourage more Iraqi politicians to visit Cairo and examine the options for reconciliation. But on Tuesday Al-Maliki said at a press conference that he had received a promise from President Hosni Mubarak that an Egyptian ambassador to Baghdad would be appointed. Al-Maliki added that this would be realized 'soon'.

However, Egyptian sources underlined that Cairo insisted that for Egypt to show more openness towards the current Iraqi government it should show more openness to all Iraqis. Cairo expects, sources say, a reduction in sectarian bias exercised by the government and what Egypt fears is tacit support for radical Shia militias. "It is not at all that Egypt is playing Sunni versus Shia, but rather that Egypt believes firmly that an even-handed approach by the government towards all sects is necessary for the containment of the current ethnic violence in Iraq," said one source.

Egyptian officials have refrained from making public statements on this matter and chose instead to blame "some of the Iraqi forces acting in Iraq", as Foreign Minister Abul-Gheit did in a recent condemnation of ethnic killing in Baghdad.

At the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League for talks with Secretary-General Amr Moussa Sunday evening, Maliki was given much the same advice as he received in talks with Egyptian officials: if it wishes to receive broad support from all Arab countries, the Iraqi government has to move towards taking action to reduce sectarian divisions. Maliki promised to move in this direction, but he also called upon Arab countries to reach out to Iraq. The Iraqi prime minister and Arab League secretary-general told a joint press conference that they agreed that a future Iraqi reconciliation meeting could take place at the headquarters of the League if deemed too difficult to hold in Baghdad.

Neither Maliki nor Moussa, however, offered a date for the resumption of the reconciliation process launched by Moussa over a year ago but interrupted by escalating sectarian violence.

The issue of Iraqi reconciliation is likely to be high on the agenda of meetings that will be hosted by Egypt on Iraq in 10 days. Two conferences will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh and will be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and other members of the G8 industrialised nations. On Tuesday, Al-Maliki told reporters that he believed that Iran will also attend the Sharm El-Sheikh conference.

"All Iraqis have suffered from this violence and from this terror and it is our hope that through the establishment of greater security and through the advancement of a process of political reconciliation in Iraq this violence can end," said Assistant US Secretary of State David Satterfield in Cairo last weekend following talks with the Arab League and Egyptian officials on the Sharm El-Sheikh meetings.

Maliki himself won't attend the upcoming meetings. Next, Maliki plans to travel to Kuwait with aides saying that the United Arab Emirates and Oman might be added to his itinerary.

Al-Qaeda attacks on military bases foiled, AL-QAEDA terrorists suspected of plotting spectacular suicide attacks using hijacked aircraft against western military bases in the Gulf were foiled by a huge security sweep by Saudi forces yesterday. The kingdom's police arrested 172 terrorist suspects, seized large quantities of weapons and netted more than $30 million in cash from the conspirators.


The ambitious plot that was thwarted bore chilling echoes to the 11 September attacks. Most of those hijackers were Saudi-born.

Saudi officials said some of the terrorists had taken advantage of the chaos in neighbouring Iraq to train - reinforcing fears among western intelligence officials that the war-torn country is spawning a new generation of deadly and battle-hardened terrorists.

"One of their main targets was to carry out suicide attacks against public figures and oil installations and to target military bases inside and outside [the country]," the Saudi interior ministry said in a statement.

It added: "Some had begun training on the use of weapons, and some were sent to other countries to study aviation in preparation to use them to carry out terrorist operations inside the country."

Any airborne terror attack from the oil-rich kingdom would put British warships in the Gulf at risk as well as the 7,100 British forces in the nearby southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, of the US, also makes a major target for a terrorist spectacular.

Al-Qaeda has long called for attacks on key Saudi oil installations to undermine the kingdom's economy and hit western energy supplies.

Suicide car-bombers in February last year targeted the world's biggest oil processing plant at the heavily-fortified Abqaiq facility in the country's eastern province.

They rammed the facility's outer gates but were killed by specialised units of the Army and National Guard well before they reached the heart of the complex.

Virtually impenetrable security measures are in place at all the kingdom's key oil installations now, making a suicide air attack the only way to inflict damage.

Saudi Arabia - home to 25,000 British expatriates - suffered its own 9/11 in May 2003 when al-Qaeda suicide bombers attacked three western compounds in the capital Riyadh.

Terrorists committed to overthrowing the western-backed Saudi monarchy went on to kill some 144 foreigners and Saudis over the next few years.

But since those first attacks, Saudi security forces have hit back with great determination, breaking the back of the al-Qaeda threat by killing scores of terrorists and arresting hundreds more.

Al-Qaeda also miscalculated badly by killing Saudi officials - leading to a backlash by the Saudi public which has provided invaluable tip-offs.

"It's fair to say the Saudis get huge intelligence from the public - far greater than in most western countries," a British security consultant in Riyadh told The Scotsman.