February 1, 1996
An editorial in the London-based newspaper 'Al-Quds
al-Arabi' ridicules the continued estrangement between Syria and Iraq and its
negative impact on the two countries'interests. The editorial notes Iraq's
efforts to coordinate its policy on Turkish use of Euphrates waters with Syria
through the Arab League, but says that, because of Kuwaiti pressure, the league
is unwilling to help broker any Iraqi rapprochement with Syria. The
editorialist, Abd al-Bari Atwan, asks why, when Syria talks to Israel and Iraq
talks to Iran, they still cannot talk to each other, even when, according to
the editorial, their continued estrangement is harming Arab causes from
Palestine to access to the region's water. He urges Syria to take note of the
importance Israel attaches to the water issue. The following is the text of the
editorial, published on 30th January:
Nabil Najm, Iraq's permanent representative to the
Arab League, has said that his country "is very keen" to coordinate
with Syria to solve the problem of sharing Euphrates waters with Turkey in a
manner that guarantees the two Arab countries' rights in accordance with the
rules of international law. These assertions came after a meeting with Arab
League Secretary-General Dr Ismat Abd al-Majid, designed to urge the league to
espouse the call to convene a meeting at ministerial level to discuss this
vital question which concerns the two countries.
Unluckily for Mr Najm, the Arab League is hesitant
to make any efforts to bring views closer between the two countries and is
avoiding any attempt to return Iraq to the Arab fold for fear of angering the
State of Kuwait and its allies. Dr Ismat Abd al-Majid has announced on numerous
occasions that the time for Arab reconciliation has not yet come, thus closing
all doors to any efforts in this connection pending further instructions.
In view of this strange situation, it is natural
that Turkey will benefit most from the absence of Syrian-Iraqi coordination in
all spheres, not just with regard to the water issue. Exploiting the chronic
Iraqi-Syrian estrangement, it has built 22 dams and 19 power stations on the
Euphrates at a cost of 30bn dollars, while the Syrian and Iraqi peoples
continue to move closer to a famine even without a blockade.
It is understandable that the two countries differ
ideologically and that they confronted one another in the first and second Gulf
wars. But we cannot understand how this disagreement can lead to severe enmity
five years on and lead to the squandering of huge quantities of water that are
a legitimate right of ordinary farmers who have lived for thousands of years on
the banks of the two rivers [the Euphrates and the Tigris].
Contemporary states, which apply a scientific
approach in their relations and policies, act rationally even with their worst
enemies and they give precedence to the interests of their people over any
personal or even ideological differences, except for the Arab states which do
exactly the opposite.
Is it not strange for Syria and Israel to negotiate
for more than five years and for officials in Damascus to make statements to
Israeli newspapers and Israeli radio and television stations and not to
negotiate with Iraq or make statements to its press? Is it not painful for
contacts between Iraq and Iran to be much better than those between Iraq and
Syria despite the eight-year war, the millions killed and the hundreds of
billions of dollars lost?
We are trying to understand the reasons for the
estrangement between the two leaderships in Damascus and Baghdad, but we do not
understand why it has continued for all these years without any justification.
If the dispute is over ways of achieving Arab unity, the nation's ambitions
have declined these days to merely safeguarding the cohesion of the one state
and trying to avert its partition. But if the dispute is over ways of
liberating Palestine, Palestine has been lost and one of the causes of this is
the Syrian-Iraqi dispute, which has paralysed the region and continues to do
so.
It might sound ridiculous to call on the two states
to unite their ranks for the sake of the nation's issues and interests. But
maybe it is logical to remind them that they are losing a great deal as a
result of the current intransigence, while others are making gains at their
expense.
The loss of Euphrates waters is the biggest
strategic mistake the two countries are making, because these waters belong to
the Iraqi and Syrian peoples and should not be abandoned so easily by not
meeting to coordinate and to confront the continuing Turkish plunder operations.
We hope that officials in Syria will learn from
Israel's care for every drop of water, whether on the Golan Heights or Lake
Tiberias, especially as they have dealt with the Israeli negotiators for long
enough and now know their methods and manoeuvres in this connection. We hope
they will use this experience to serve Syria's interests first and Iraq's
second in any future negotiations with Turkey over the distribution of water
quotas, that is assuming they succeed in their current negotiations with the
Israelis.
It is really frustrating: The West has seized the
oil and its revenues; Eritrea and Iran have occupied Arab islands in the Red
Sea and the Gulf; and here are Israel and Turkey coordinating to steal Arab
waters on the Golan, from the Tigris and the Euphrates. And it will not be
surprising if Ethiopia flexes its muscles at us in the near future and seeks
Israel's help, just as Eritrea has done, to build dams to take control of the
Nile valley and the distribution of the waters of the Nile.
Once again, we say that we are not talking about
higher Arab interests. Nor are we urging the mobilization of armies for a
showdown. Nor do we have the courage to use the word liberation, since this
word has lost its meaning since the "liberation" of Kuwait . We are
merely appealing to the Syrian leadership to look after its people's water and
that of the Iraqi people, who are a fraternal people and no less
"Ba'thist" than the Syrian people. The first thing to do is to
coordinate. Is this too much for this leadership to do?!