Jordan Times
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Mulki visits Lebanon
BEIRUT (Agencies) — Foreign Minister Hani Mulki on Tuesday voiced fears that an Iranian-style Islamic government could be established in Iraq following this month's elections and warned that religion and politics were incompatible, the Associated Press reported.
Mulki was in Lebanon on a regional tour just two days before Jordan hosts a ministerial meeting of Iraq's neighbours that will be boycotted by Iran's foreign minister.
Mulki cautioned against attempts to use religion for political purposes, saying such a move would be dangerous for Arabism, according to AP. “We are not accusing the Iranian government. We said that politicising religion is dangerous for both religion and Arabism,” Mulki was quoted as saying. “When we talk about a Shiite crescent, we are talking about a non-Arab religious rule.” He added: “What we are interested in here [Iraq] is for Arabism to be safe so that Islam can be safe. We believe that politics and religion are incompatible.” Mulki held separate talks Tuesday with President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Omar Karami and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud about the future of Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Mulki had similar talks with Egyptian and Syrian presidents last month. Iraq fears that a Shiite alliance will triumph in the elections and promote sectarianism in both Iraq and neighbouring states. Shiites have long constituted the majority in Iraq, but they were held down under Saddam Hussein who favoured the Sunni minority. Iran denies it is trying to interfere in the Iraqi political process. Mulki noted that the Arab world is going through “a very delicate stage.” “It is a stage in which the reshaping of Iraq is taking place. It is a stage in which we restore momentum to the [Arab-Israeli peace] negotiations,” he said. Jordan urges Lebanon to heed UN resolution Meanwhile, Mulki urged Lebanese officials to heed UN Security Council demands for an end to foreign involvement in their internal affairs, Agence France-Presse said. “We think it is extremely important — and I know that the Lebanese recognise this — to implement this resolution,” Mulki told reporters after talks with his Lebanese counterpart Hammoud. “UN Security Council resolutions must be heeded.” But Lahoud put out a statement insisting that previous Security Council resolutions on the Middle East conflict must be implemented before there could be any talk of applying Resolution 1559 passed in September last year.
“Implementing them in chronological order will lead to the de facto application of Resolution 1559,” he said. The September text demanded the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon and full respect for its sovereignty, a call clearly targeted at dominant neighbour Syria. But both Lebanon and Syria insist that Israel must first heed a series of much older Security Council resolutions calling for its withdrawal from occupied Arab territories, including the Golan Heights seized from Damascus in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The United States, which co-sponsored Resolution 1559 with France, has warned that it will raise the two governments' non-compliance with the text when a separate 27-year-old resolution establishing a UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon comes up for renewal later this month.