Arab Cooperation Council
The Arab Cooperation Council ( Arabic مجلس التعاون العربي, English Arab Cooperation Council , ACC) was an economic alliance between Iraq , Egypt , Jordan and Yemen . The alliance effectively existed from the spring of 1989 to the late summer of 1990.
prehistory
The first efforts to establish a common economic area within the Arab League were made in 1964. The Council for Arab Economic Unity created by the League was joined by ten member states by 1977 (later twelve), but the resulting Common Arab Market was initially only formed by Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Syria . With the Syrian-Iraqi break and the exclusion of Egypt from the Arab League (suspension of membership), the common Arab market failed in 1979 at the latest. Instead, from 1981 the Gulf monarchies sealed themselves off in their own economic bloc , the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Although this bloc formation within the Arab League continued with the establishment of the Arab Cooperation Council on February 16, 1989 and the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UAM) on February 17, 1989, Iraq expressed its confidence that the Arab Cooperation Council would give new impetus to Arab unity give.
Arab Council for Economic Cooperation
Iraq's cooperation with Egypt, Jordan, North Yemen, but also with Sudan was already well developed at this point. Egypt had supplied Iraq with ammunition during the war against Iran ; of 2.5 million Egyptian guest workers in Iraq, tens or hundreds of thousands along with 15,000 Egyptian officers had served in the Iraqi army (15,000 Egyptians alone were captured by Iran by 1988) . 10,000 Sudanese, 3,000 Yemenis and 3,000 Jordanians had also fought on the Iraqi side.
On July 7, 1988, while the war was still in progress, the “Supreme Committee” of Egypt and Iraq met for the first time. The heads of government of both countries signed eight cooperation agreements to coordinate their foreign policy, intensify their economic cooperation and ensure equality for citizens in the other country. On October 22, 1988, Egyptian President Husni Mubarak visited the Jordanian King Hussein I in Aqaba, and the following day both traveled on to Baghdad. When Saddam Hussein made a return visit to Cairo on November 28, 1988 - the first visit by an Iraqi head of state since that Arif in 1964 - both sides stated that they were in complete agreement on all-Arab issues. At the second meeting of the Supreme Committee on January 8, 1989 in Cairo, further cooperation agreements for agriculture, industry, energy, research, social security and guest workers were signed. On January 18, 1989, Iraq agreed a joint commission for economic and technical cooperation with North Yemen.
On 16 February 1989, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, Hussein signed I and Ali Abdullah Saleh , the Constitutive Act of the Arab Council for Economic Cooperation (English Arab Economic Cooperation Council , AECC), which in May 1989 in Arab Cooperation Council has been renamed.
Aim and purpose
The declared aim of the Arab Cooperation Council should be the unity, solidarity and strengthening of the Arab nation. At the founding conference in Baghdad, the heads of state of the four Arab states agreed to push ahead with the dismantling of customs barriers in order to achieve the free movement of goods, capital and services between the member states. The import regulations for imports from non-member countries should be standardized. The long-term goal was a common Arab internal market modeled on the EC . The member states also committed themselves to the peaceful settlement of differences of opinion between the members and not to interfere in the internal affairs of the member states.
In addition to the declared official goals, each of the four member countries pursued its own goals. The alliance, which was founded primarily on the initiative of Iraq, was intended to free Iraq from its financial dependence on the Gulf Cooperation Council, which Iraq had found itself in during the war against Iran. The main purpose was therefore the expansion of Iraqi-Egyptian relations. Iraq promoted the re-entry of Egypt into the Arab League, and Egypt campaigned for the all-Arab alliance of the League in favor of Iraq against Iran.
The weaker members of Jordan and Yemen, in turn, should be brought into economic dependence or under the economic control of Iraq. On the other hand, the Iraq alliance should also help isolate its rival Syria economically and politically.
Other candidate countries
Although the Alliance of Four expressly sought the membership of further Arab states - at least those that were not (yet) members of the GCC or the UAM (e.g. Sudan or Lebanon ), an Iraqi veto was to be expected against the obvious admission of Syria as long as Syria did not withdraw from Lebanon. Sudan had meanwhile been invited to the UAM by Libya in May 1989. In fact, Somalia and Djibouti applied for ACC membership, but were asked to wait until a second wave of admission once the first phase of consolidation of the Cooperation Council was over.
organs
Four organs were created to achieve the objectives: a Supreme Council of Heads of State and Government, a Committee of Ministers of Line Ministers, an Aviation Council and a General Secretariat. The seat of the council was the Jordanian capital Amman .
Development and failure
The Supreme Council, established at the first summit in Baghdad in February 1989 , held its second session in Alexandria in June, one month late , to elect the Egyptian Helmi Mahmud Namar as Secretary General of the Economic Alliance. The third time it met in September 1989 in the Yemeni capital Sanaa , the fourth time on the anniversary in February 1990 in Amman. At these meetings, various cooperation agreements were concluded in the areas of trade, air travel, law enforcement and guest workers. However, the agreed cooperation in science and technology, in the fight against drug trafficking and in investing in the oil industry did not go beyond the draft agreements. Instead, identical commemorative stamps were issued in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan on the 1990 anniversary.
In terms of foreign policy, too, the members agreed on common demands such as the Palestinians' right to self-determination and the rejection of further settlements for Soviet Jews in the West Bank, the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon (i.e. both the Israelis and the Syrians) and support for one just peace solution between Iraq and Iran. However, instead of supporting the Iraq-friendly Aoun military government in Lebanon against the Hoss government set up by Syria , Jordan expressed solidarity for the Hoss government in the Lebanese civil war . Egypt had still favored Aoun with Iraq in 1988, but then gradually took a more neutral position and normalized its relations with the Hoss government in June 1989. At Egyptian insistence, and on condition that Syria do the same, Iraq stopped delivering arms to Lebanon in July 1989, but resumed them in October 1989. The deteriorating treatment of Egyptian guest workers in Iraq (1,000 unexplained deaths), who were increasingly being displaced by dismissed Iraqi soldiers, led to resentment in Iraqi-Egyptian relations. In December 1989 Iraq announced its intention to move up to 1.3 million Egyptians to leave the country, but in May 1990 there were still 2 million Egyptian migrant workers in Iraq.
In May 1990 the Arab Cooperation Council was expanded by the unification of North Yemen and South Yemen, but the final split occurred as a result of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in August 1990. While Jordan and Yemen showed understanding for the Iraqi approach, Egypt and Syria joined the anti-Iraqi alliance and participated in both the economic embargo and, in January 1991, the war against Iraq . As a result of the extensive war destruction and the economic embargo that continued after 1991, Iraq's economic strength was also destroyed. In order to escape the isolation that Yemen had entered by taking sides in favor of Iraq, President Salih suggested in 1992 a revival of cooperation with Egypt and Jordan without Iraq, but was initially rejected by Mubarak. Jordan continued to source oil from Iraq, and in 1994 Iraqi troops in Yemen prevented a re-secession of South Yemen supported by Saudi Arabia. In the same year (1994), however, Egypt finally formally terminated its membership in the Arab Cooperation Council, and under Egyptian-Syrian mediation, Yemen reconciled with Saudi Arabia and the USA in 1995.
literature
- Gustav Fochler-Hauke (Ed.): Der Fischer Weltalmanach 1992. Frankfurt / Main 1991, ISBN 3-596-19092-4 , p. 679.
- Günter Kettermann: Atlas on the history of Islam. Darmstadt 2001, p. 165 f.
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 42/84, p. 10 (Sudan Zeitgeschichte 1982). Ravensburg 1984
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 19/90, p. 15 (Jordan Economy 1990) and p. 39 (Jordan Chronicle 1989). Ravensburg 1990
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 35/89, p. 63 (Lebanon Politik 1988). Ravensburg 1989 (NZZ of October 12, 1988: Iraqi Influence - The Dangers of the Partition of Lebanon )
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 20/90, p. 19 (Egypt Economy 1987). Ravensburg 1990 (Stuttgarter Zeitung of December 21, 1987: Egypt - one of the largest armories in the Third World )
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 20/90, p. 47 f (Egypt Chronicle 1989). Ravensburg 1990
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 28–29 / 90, p. 11 (Arab Republic of Yemen Chronicle 1989). Ravensburg 1990
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 20/91, p. 31 f (Irak Chronik 1989). Ravensburg 1991
- Munzinger Archive / Internationales Handbuch - Zeitarchiv 21/91, p. 27 (Iraq Politics 1990). Ravensburg 1991 (NZZ of March 16, 1990: Iraq as the Arab vanguard in Africa )